A slow start proved costly as the Dominican University women's basketball team came up short against the Lakeland University Muskies, 66-57, on Wednesday night in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play at the Igini Sports Forum.
The Stars shot just under 18-percent and turned the ball over 14 times in falling behind by as many as 24 points during the first half and faced a 35-14 deficit at the break.
"Tonight our youth and lack of energy put us in a massive hole early," commented Gabby Johnson, the Stars' head coach in her sixth season. "We have to bring energy even when we are struggling in every other aspect of the game. Energy and effort need to be a constant."
After a huge third quarter that saw Dominican outscore the Muskies 27-10 in the period, the Stars angled the lead all the way down to one, 45-44, when
Amari Stafford split a pair of free throws with 9:27 to play in the fourth. Lakeland answered with a quick 4-0 over the next minute to push the lead back to five and then kept the Stars at bay, converting on ten of 15 attempts from the free throw line over the final ten minutes.
"We buckled down in the second half and our defensive game plan was executed perfectly," continued Johnson. "We proved to ourselves that we can compete with the best teams in the conference. The next step in the process is winning those games."
Freshman
Alisha Markley scored all of her team-high 15 points during the second half in the losing effort. The rookie led four in double-figures scoring for Dominican with
Katie Uzoras adding 11 points and
Timiya Ray and
Amari Stafford chipping in ten points apiece.
As a team, the Stars shot just 28-percent (18-64) from the field and lost the battle on the glass, 53-45, including surrendering 22 offensive rebounds, leading to 14 second chance points for the Muskies.
For Lakeland, Miranda Jacobson scored a game-high 22 points on 7-for-13 shooting while Rachel Stankevich added 16 and Abby Nylund finished with ten.
The loss drops the Stars to 9-9 on the season and 5-8 in league play with a trip to Rockford on deck for Dominican on Saturday. Tipoff against the Rockford University Regents is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.
