DePaul University Athletics
Blue Demons Fall in Hawai'i
11/29/2002 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Boxscore
HONOLULU, Hawai’i – No. 11 North Carolina (3-0) took a 14-point lead at the end of the first half and held DePaul (1-1) off in a 82-66 win on Friday afternoon in the first game of the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic. The loss drops DePaul to 1-1 and they will face the Fordham Rams on Saturday at 1:10 p.m. HST (5:10 p.m. CST).
The Blue Demons jumped out to a 7-2 lead on a pair of three’s by Sarah Kustok and Ashley Luke around a Jenni Dant free throw. North Carolina stormed back and knotted the game at 7-7 before Jamie Smith scored off her own miss and Luke nailed her second trey of the game for 12-7 DePaul advantage.
The Tar Heels scored 15 of the game’s next 17 points and erased the five-point deficit for a 22-14 lead. A pair of free throws by Jamie Smith started and ended a 13-3 run for DePaul to close the gap to 28-27 with just over eight minutes left in the half. UNC’s Leah Metcalf hit a three-pointer put the Tar Heels back up by four.
The score was at 33-31 on Luke’s third three of the first half until back-to-back three’s by Coretta Brown gave the Tar Heels a 39-31 lead. Dant ended the brief run by slicing through the lane for a lay-up with just under four minutes remaining. She was followed by a pair of Luke free throws that cut North Carolina’s lead to 41-35.
The first stanza ended with Brown’s third three of the half with five seconds remaining to give the Tar Heels their largest lead of the half at 51-37. North Carolina ended the half with a 10-2 for the 14-point halftime lead.
DePaul closed the lead early in the second half as Charlene Smith went on her own 7-0 run with a pair of free throws, a three-pointer and a lay-up off a steal to cut the Tar Heel lead to 58-46. With just over 12 minutes left in the contest, UNC increased the lead to 65-48 on three straight jumpers by Nikita Bell.
The Blue Demons scored the next six points to cut the lead to 11 points forcing the Tar Heels to take a time out. Three straight buckets by Jamie Smith, Dant and Kustok made the game, 65-54. Lindsay Forsberg came out of the break and knocked down a three to trim the lead to eight before two straight buckets by UNC.
Back-to-back buckets by North Carolina’s Kenya McBee and La’Tangela Atkinson upped the UNC advantage to, 69-60, before Forsberg answered with her second trey of the half. That would be as close as the Blue Demons would get as North Carolina held the DePaul to just six points over the final 7:35 of the game.
Jamie Smith led four players in double-figures with 16 points and nine rebounds. She was followed by Charlene Smith with 15 points and Dant and Luke with 11 points each. Dant also added seven boards.