The Dominican University women's basketball team scored their most exciting victory of the season on Tuesday night, overcoming a 21-point deficit late in the third quarter for a 79-74 win over the Aurora University Spartans at Aurora's Thornton Gymnasium. The win pushes the Stars to 13-11 on the season, guaranteeing Dominican its first winning season since 2012.
"Tonight's win was one of the biggest wins in my six years at Dominican," claimed Gabby Johnson, the Stars' head women's basketball coach. "We battled back and proved to ourselves that we can get back into a game one play at a time."
"We got major contributions from a group of people in different ways.
Amari Stafford was incredible on the defensive end.
Timiya Ray got hot at the right time and
Alexis Hoskins was so impressive shooting the passing lanes. The freshmen,
Alisha Markley and
Stephenee Huggans, knocked down some big free throws in pressure situations to help wrap things up late."
With 1:44 to play in the third quarter, Aurora's Julie Galauner's layup pushed the Spartans' lead to 59-38, their largest lead of the night. The Stars scored the final six points of the quarter to cut the lead back to 15, 59-44, heading to the fourth.
The Stars carried the momentum, scoring the first 13 points of the period before Aurora snapped a near six-minute scoreless drought when Meija Rabi scored with 6:13 to play to push the Spartans' lead to four 61-57. Ray promptly buried a three and later evened the score with the Stars' fourth three of the period, 68-68, with 3:25 to play.
After a stop on the defensive end, Ray gave Dominican their first lead since leading 12-11 in the first quarter with a jumper. After a three-point play for the Spartans put Aurora back on top, Ray gained the lead back for Dominican, converting on a pair of free throws. The lead change was the sixth and final of the night as the Stars scored the next four points before Markley put the game away at the foul line, going 3-for-4 in the final 25 seconds of the game.
The Stars outscored the Spartans 35-15 in the pivotal fourth quarter, shooting 10-for-15 from the field while forcing seven Aurora turnovers. The Stars also capitalized on 11 fourth quarter fouls for the Spartans, going 11-for-14 from the charity stripe.
Ray finished with a game-high 26 points, including dropping in 11 in the fourth quarter. Hoskins added 19 while Markley poured in 14 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Shamia Clark added 13 off the bench as Dominican put four in double-figures scoring.
For the Spartans, Galauner finished with a team-high 23 points on 8-for-15 shooting. Bailey Kramer, Alyssa Brems and Rabi all chipped in 14 in the losing effort.
Dominican will close out the 2017-2018 campaign on Saturday, hosting the Rockford University Regents for a 4:15 p.m. tipoff. The Stars will be looking to avenge a 70-66 loss at Rockford back on January 27.
"I'm so happy for our kids," continued Johnson. "They kept playing even without anything on the line but PRIDE. That is a huge testament to the future of our program. Shamia played great in the second half and I hope we can send her out with a win on Saturday as our lone senior."
