Stephen F. Austin
Rice
Second-Half Rally Dooms Ladyjacks
11/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2004
NACOGDOCHES - Despite a 16-point, 11-rebound effort from senior Zedralyn Butler, the Ladyjacks dropped their season-opener, 75-62, to Rice Friday night at the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The Ladyjacks start the season 0-1.
The game was close, back-and-forth affair that watched neither team build a lead greater the three points for the first six minutes of the game. Junior Kirby Killingsworth sparked a 17-4 run by hitting three consecutive three-pointers to give the Ladyjacks a 26-12 lead with 9:23 for the rest of the half. Killingsworth finished the game with 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Ladyjacks held their own on the glass outrebounding the Lady Owls, 44-39, and the Ladyjacks never allowed Rice to cut the lead to single digits for the remainder of the first half. SFA took a 37-26 advantage into halftime.
The Owls' opened the second half on 9-4 run led by Krystal Frazier's 23 points. But SFA responded building its lead back to double-digits, 46-35, with 15:17 remaining in the game. Butler helped SFA regain the lead with her first career-double recording a career-high 16 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.
But the Lady Owls continued to cut away at the SFA advantage and tied the game at 48 with just less than 10 minutes remaining. The next three minutes of the contest resembled the early part of the first half as both team exchanged buckets. The Lady Owls' Lauren Neaves put and end to the back-and-fourth game as she sparked a 17-8 run to close out the game with her 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Junior LaToya Mills had a strong night for SFA finishing with a team-high 17 points despite playing with foul trouble for most of the game. She also pulled down six rebounds. Senior Alex Bowman finished the night with eight points and seven rebounds for SFA.
The Ladyjacks return to action Friday Nov. 26, when they travel to Freeport, Grand Bahama to face No. 6 (ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll) Duke in the first-round of the Junkanoo Jam tournament. The game against the Blue Devils is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m.
-SFA-
