Blue Demons Fall at Michigan State
3/14/2002 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Boxscore
EAST LANSING, Mich. - After dropping nine three-pointers in the first half, DePaul went cold and was outscored by 10 points in the second stanza on Thursday night at the Breslin Center. The Blue Demons trailed by one at the break before losing, 87-76, to end their season at 15-14. Michigan State moves on to play the winner of the Illinois-Western Kentucky game in the second round of the WNIT.
DePaul trailed from the start as Michigan State jumped out to a 14-8 lead. The Blue Demons withstood the early run and trimmed the deficit to 19-17 with 13:03 left. The Spartans tried to increase the lead, but DePaul answered every shot and took brief lead on back-to-back three's by Laura Sobieszczyk with 4:11 left in the half. Michigan State answered with a lay up by Kelli Roehrig to retake the lead at 35-34 on their next possession.
The first half ended with a Lindsay Forsberg three-pointer to bring DePaul within one at 43-42. The first stanza saw DePaul knock down nine three-pointers while shooting .483 from the field. Lenae Williams led all scorers with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field.
Michigan State opened the second half with consecutive layups, forcing Doug Bruno to call a timeout. A free throw by Jenni Dant at 16:36 gave DePaul their first point of the second stanza. Dant brought DePaul back with a three-pointer and three-point play before Williams stole the inbounds pass and scored to knot the game at 53-53 with just under 13 minutes left in the game.
Over the next 10 minutes, Michigan State slowly built a 10-point lead that was capped off by a three-point play by Syreeta Bromfield to give the Spartans the 76-66 advantage with 3:59 left. Dant's third trey of the game at 1:58 cut the Michigan State lead to 79-71, but that would be as close as the Blue Demons would get. DePaul was able to score only five more points over the last two minutes while the Spartans hit seven free throws.
Dant led all scorers with a career-high 24 points while Williams added 17 and Sobieszczyk chipped in 15 points. Of Dant's 24 points, 19 came in the second half while adding three steals, two rebounds and two steals. Sobiesczcyk knocked down five three-pointer while DePaul as a team hit 14 treys. It marked the sixth time this season that the Blue Demons hit at least 10 three's in a game.