Blue Demons Top Netherlands National Team
11/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Boxscore
CHICAGO – The DePaul women’s basketball team won the first of their two exhibition games, 109-74, on Wednesday night at the DePaul Athletic Center. Khara Smith led four players in double-figures with 29 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Blue Demons.
A game-opening three-pointer by Leonie Kooij gave the National Team of Holland the early advantage. DePaul answered with 15 straight points and led, 15-3, on a three-pointer by Ashley Luke at 16:15.
Tanya Broring closed the DePaul lead to five points at 20-15 with just over 13 minutes left in the first half. The five-point deficit was as close as the Netherlands team would get for the remainder of the game.
The Blue Demons put together another and opened up a 20-point lead on back-to-back three-pointers by Jenna Rubino. In a Reggie Miller-like flurry, the freshman knocked down her first three, stole the inbounds pass and drained another to give the Blue Demons a 41-21 advantage with 7:28 left in the half.
Smith gave DePaul their largest lead of the first half when Jenni Dant fed the power forward on the block and she knocked down the turnaround jumper for a 54-22 Blue Demon advantage.
The second half was more even as DePaul outscored the visitors, 47-42. The lead would get no smaller than 28 points and Shiesha McCollum’s jumper gave the Blue Demons their biggest lead of 39 points with 14:32 left in the game.
The Smith cousins combined for 50 points as Charlene tallied 21 points to add to Khara’s game-high 29. Dant added 19 points while Jarietta Benton dropped in 17 and Ashley Luke added 11 points. Charlene Smith also added a team-high six assists to go with seven rebounds. As a team, the Blue Demons shot .553 and were 10-of-23 from three-point land.
DePaul wraps up the exhibition portion of the schedule with a game on Saturday evening against the Chicago Challengers. Tipoff is at 6 p.m at the DePaul Athletic Center with a number of Blue Demons alumni on the Challengers roster. Former DePaul players going against the alma mater include, Stacy Bruno, Kris Rastrelli, Briana Fitzgerald, Jamie Lewis and Carla Stone.
The regular season opens with the Moran Realty Classic, Nov. 21-22. DePaul hosts the four-team tournament with Ball State and Northwestern State playing at 6 p.m. on Friday followed by DePaul and UW-Milwaukee at 8 p.m.