WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Owls down Miners, fall to Lobos to end road trip with 9-6 record

---

by David Gordon

---

Last Thursday, the Owls downed the Lady Miners 71-60 and improved their conference record to 4-0. From El Paso, the team traveled up to Albuquerque to face the 11-4 Lobos.

Despite having a nine-point lead with five minutes left in the second half, the Owls fell, 60-57, in overtime.

In El Paso, the Owls jumped out to a 31-16 halftime lead while holding the Lady Miners to just three-of-24 shooting from the field.

The guard combination of senior Jessica Garcia and freshman Marla Brumfield contributed the bulk of the scoring with eight and six points, respectively.

This backcourt duo has been providing the bulk of the team's scoring; Garcia has done her job from three-point range while Brumfield has gone straight to the hoop.

Brumfield's 12.5 points per game leads the team. Garcia is currently fourth in the Western Athletic Conference in three-point shooting percentage, hitting over 41 percent.

The Owls out-rebounded their opponent by a 26-16 margin.

In the second half the game took a U-turn as the Owls became complacent with their large lead.

Lady Miner forward Jill Lewis dropped in 18 second-half points as UTEP cut the Owl lead to four with under five minutes remaining in the game.

Sophomore Gina Cafagna went on to score seven more points, and Brumfield chipped in four as the Owls outscored UTEP 17-10 over the remainder of game.

Building a large lead and then allowing the opponent to slowly climb back has been one of the team's main problems this year. According to Garcia, the team relaxes with the large lead.

"Once we have a lead, we have trouble maintaining it," she said. "But we learning from those experiences."

Brumfield's 16 points led the team, and sophomore forward Angelica Smith chipped in 15 -- 11 of those coming in the second half.

Smith also grabbed 10 rebounds, giving her another double-double.

Facing one of their toughest opponents in several games, the Owls matched up well against the Lobos. The first half had eight lead changes as both teams tallied 24 points.

In the second half, the Lobos erased the Owls' nine-point lead in the last five minutes as the Owls' only score was a Brumfield jumper with one minute left in regulation.

According to Garcia, mental errors in the overtime detracted from the team's hard play during the game.

In the extra period, the Owls got two baskets from sophomore center Jennifer Hamilton and a free throw from Brumfield to take a one-point lead with 1:23 left.

Lobo Sonya Bryant hit two free throws after being fouled by Cafagna.

On the Owls' next possession, senior center Debi Williams was fouled. She missed the front-end of the 1-1.

The Owls were able to get a jump ball with under a minute left, but lost possession and were forced to foul.

Lobo Tamika Stukes made both free-throws to clinch the game at 60-57 with 13 seconds left.

Garcia and Brumfield again lead the team in scoring with 15 and 11 points, respectively.

Sophomore forward Angelica Smith continued to dominate the boards, pulling down 11 rebounds during her 36 minutes on the court.

This week the team hosts two teams representing the best and worst that the Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division has to offer.

Late last night the 12-3 (5-0 in the WAC) University of Utah Utes visited Autry Court. Tomorrow the 4-12 (1-4 in the WAC) Brigham Young University Cougars make the trip to Houston.

Utah is coming off big wins over both Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University.

Brigham Young split the same road trip, losing to SMU and beating TCU.

Utah was chosen in the preseason as the favorite to win the Mountain Division, and the game is a matchup between the two top teams in the division.

According to Brumfield, defense and taking care of the ball will be the key to the game. The Owls have turned the ball over more than 20 times during these past two games.

"We need to cut down on turnovers, and play defense with intensity," she said.

Garcia backed up that statement. "We are going to go after it hard. We want to be No. 1 again," she said.

Although the team has been looking forward to playing Brigham Young, the players have done their best to focus on the game at hand, according to Garcia.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the January 24, 1997 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.