Women’s basketball split in the University of San Diego Thanksgiving Tournament this weekend in San Diego, California with a 49-57 loss against San Diego on Friday night and a 60-46 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday night, earning the team their first win of the season.
Monmouth started strong and shot 13-26 or 50 percent in the first half, but only shot 4-25 or 16 percent in the second. The Hawks also went 7-17 from the free throw line.
Senior guard Akilah Jennings was tough in the first half with nine points and five points in the second half. She matched her career high with 14 points for the night. Jennings has averaged 10.3 points in her last three games.
Senior guard Sierra Green led the team with 16 points in the game. She put up eight points in the first half and eight more in the second. Impressively, this is the 26th time Green has scored double figures in 35 games.
Sophomore forward Lucy Thomas led the team in rebounds with seven in the contest.
“We had moments where we played well and battled back a couple of times. Defensively, we were able to create some turnovers to get some momentum, but we just couldn’t sustain it,” said Head Coach Jody Craig. “We keep making poor decisions on offense and tur the ball over at inopportune times. We just weren’t in sync on both ends of the floor. This was a frustrating loss.”
Following the loss, Monmouth went on to face Purdue Fort Wayne the next night.
The Hawks were able to pull out a win, earning them their first victory of the season.
Redshirt sophomore guard Jen Louro took a 2-0 lead after free throws before the contest even started, as Purdue Fort Wayne was called for a technical due to equipment violations.
The Hawks’ strong defense was able to hold the Mastodons to 17-52 (33 percent) from the floor and 5-26 (19 percent) from the three. The team shot 33.8 percent for the night.
At the end of the first quarter, the Hawks’ led 12-6, forcing their opponent to shoot at just 15 percent. Going into halftime, Monmouth was in the lead by a score of 24-15.
The Hawks dominated late in the game, scoring the first six points after layups in the third quarter coming from sophomore guard Alexa Wallace, Jennings, and Louro. After five straight points from Green in the last minutes of the third quarter and a three from Louro at the buzzer, the Hawks went into the final quarter leading 45-28.
Monmouth went on a 7-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter to make the score 57-34. Purdue Fort Wayne was able to outscore the Hawks 12-3 in the fourth, but Monmouth was able to secure the 14-point win.
Louro had an incredible night and put up a career high 24 points. She went 8-16 from the paint and 6-13 from deep. Jennings had eight points in the contest and a career high eight rebounds. Green had nine points for the night, as well as three assists.
“This trip is helping us find ourselves, and we need contributions from everybody,” said Craig. “We had a lot of players ready to contribute today, and that’s a tribute to our character as a team. We’re just trying to learn to play 40 minutes.”
The Lady Hawks improve to 1-4 this season and will travel to take on #24 Arizona on Monday, Dec. 2 at 8:30pm in Tucson, Arizona.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
