Vermont Holds Off KSU Comeback Attempt
12/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
KENT, Ohio - Despite coming back from as many as 15 points down, the Kent State women's basketball team came up short for the fifth time this season as Vermont defeated the Golden Flashes 63-53 Saturday afternoon (Dec. 1) at the M.A.C. Center.
Junior post Anna Kowalska scored a game-high 21 points and fellow junior post Samantha Scull added seven points and a game-high nine rebounds. Freshman guard Stephanie Gibson also scored seven. " I think we need to work harder as a whole team," Kowalska said. "I think that's the number one key, and being more mentally strong. We need to work hard the whole game, not just for five minutes. The whole game." The Flashes (1-5) shot a respectable 44.9 percent from the field, but connected on just 2-of-12 three-point attempts. "The fact that we came back and the lead was cut to three, there's some positives in that," coach Bob Lindsay said. "There was some isolated situations where I thought we did pretty well. We either scored or made a play defensively." Vermont (5-2) found success to start the game with their up-tempo play that the Flashes had trouble keeping up with. After five minutes of play the Catamounts jumped out to a 12-5 lead. However, a swarming zone defense by Kent State helped create seven first-half turnovers that led to a 12-5 run of their own to even the score at 17-17 with just under eight minutes remaining in the first half.. Turnovers and transition offense by the Catamounts proved to be too much for Kent State to take. In addition to shooting 56 percent (17-for-30) and forcing 10 turnovers, which turned into 12 points, the Catamounts scored 26 points in the paint. Vermont ended the half on a 22-7 run to take a commanding 39-24 lead into the break. The inside duo of Kowalska and Scull provided the bulk of Kent State's offense in the first half with 12 and five points respectively. Kowalska scored eight of KSU's final nine points in the half. Chanel Harris had four assists in the first half for Kent State while Scull and Alisa Brinkman added three rebounds each. Kowalska picked up where she left off in the first half by scoring seven points and Stephanie Gibson added four consecutive points to help pull Kent State to within eight (47-39) midway through the second half. Gibson finished the game with seven points and three assists in 39 minutes of play. It was the fifth game in which Gibson has played at least 38 minutes. Trailing by 11 with eight minutes to play, Brinkman scored two straight baskets while Gibson and Rachel Bennett followed suit with a pair of threes to cap off a 10-2 run and pull Kent State to within three (52-49) with four minutes to play. However, a three-pointer by Courtney Pilypaitis ended any notion of a Golden Flash comeback. The teams finished the game by trading baskets on the way to a 63-53 Vermont victory. Kent State held Vermont to just 25.8 percent shooting (8-for-31) and forced five turnovers in the second half. Scull's nine rebounds marked a new career-high.
Amy Rosenkrantz scored a career-high 20 points to lead Vermont. The Flashes will travel to Philadelphia to play Temple Wednesday (Dec. 5) at 7 p.m.
