Women's Basketball Drops Opener at Oklahoma
11/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Box Score
NORMAN, Okla. – The DePaul women’s basketball team opened the season with a 105-71 loss at No. 3/3 Oklahoma in the second game of the State Farm Tip-Off Classic. No. 20/19 DePaul trailed, 45-33, at halftime, but an 11-2 run early in the second half opened up a 19-point lead for the Sooners.
A layup by Ashley Paris gave Oklahoma (1-0) a 13-7 lead before Caprice Smith hit a short jumper and Holly Medley nailed a three-pointer to close the deficit to a point with 14:21 left in the first half.
The Sooners answered with back-to-back three’s by Chelsi Welch to take a seven-point lead with just under 12 minutes on the clock. Welch was tough on the Blue Demons all afternoon with 23 points on 4-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.
Paris dropped in two free throws to push the advantage to 12 points before DePaul (0-1) put together a five-point flurry to cut the score to 33-26 with 4:14 left until halftime. The seven-point deficit would be as close as the Blue Demons would get for the remainder of the contest.
A jumper in the lane by Courtney Paris just under seven minutes into the second half made the score 62-42 in favor of the Sooners and the lead ballooned to 26 points at 69-43 with 12:05 left in the game.
DePaul scored nine of the game’s next 10 points for a 70-51 score on a pair of Smith free throws. In the final minutes, the Sooners held a 34-point advantage on two occasions with the final score of 105-71 representing the largest lead of the game.
Erin Carney pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds while Jenna Rubino finished with 18 points. Rubino hit four three-pointers while scoring all 18 points in the second half. Smith added 14 points and five rebounds while China Threatt totaled nine points and six assists.
Welch and Courtney Paris led all scorers with 23 points apiece. Courtney Paris added 11 rebounds for the double-double and Ashley Paris finished with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.
The Blue Demons open the home schedule next weekend with the DePaul Invitational at McGrath Arena. Illinois State and Stony Brook begin the action on Friday at 5:30 p.m. followed by DePaul and Yale. The two winners meet in the championship game on Saturday night after the consolation game at 5:30 p.m.
Postgame Notes: The loss ended a five-year streak of winning the season-opener… the Blue Demons are now 24-9 all-time in the first game of the season… Erin Carney’s 19 rebounds were a career-high… she has two career games of 15-plus rebounds and seven career games with double-figure rebounds… the game was the first since a 100-66 loss to Tennessee on Dec. 17, 1999 that DePaul has allowed 100 or more points… an opponent has reached the century mark 12 times in program history… Missy Mitidiero made her first collegiate start… the meeting was the first between the two programs… DePaul is now 6-11 all-time against teams from the Big 12 Conference.