Purdue Fort Wayne
0-1
Michigan State
1-0
Mastodons Drop Opener to Spartans
11/13/2010 5:37:44 PM | Women's Basketball
BOX SCORE | POSTGAME NOTES
East Lansing, MI - The IPFW Mastodons fell to the 24th ranked (ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll) Spartans of Michigan State on Saturday afternoon in the season opener for each squad.
Stephanie Rosado scored a game-high 18 points for IPFW, while Kayla Drake and Amanda Hyde scored 13 and 10, respectively, in each of their Mastodon debuts. Drake pulled down a team-best six rebounds, as Stephanie Rosado had three assists.
"What we told our kids at halftime was this is a marathon, not a sprint," said IPFW head coach Chris Paul. "We needed to come out here and compete and win the second half, and we did. That was a goal of ours, to get out here and prove that we can compete with this basketball team, and I am proud of how hard we played in the second half."
IPFW found itself in an early hole, falling behind 5-0 before Sydney Weinert opened the scoring for the Mastodons on the season with a lay-in a minute and a half into the game.
The Spartans responded by scoring the next ten points to take a 10-point, 15-2 lead, five minutes into the game. The 'Dons were able to climb back, closing the gap to nine points at 22-13 when Jackson hit a lay-in with 8:23 left in the half, forcing Michigan State into a 30-second timeout.
Out of the timeout, MSU scored ten straight, and ended the half on a 7-0 run to take a 51-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half IPFW cut the deficit to as few as 26, and the gap closed at 28 at the game's completion, as the Mastodons out-scored Michigan State 41-39 in the second half.
The Mastodons hit just 37.1 percent of its shots in the game (23-of-62), and just 3-of-14 three-point baskets (21.4 percent). The Spartans made 54.2 percent of its shots (32-of-59), and half of the 20 three-point attempts put up by the hosts.
The Spartans out-rebounded IPFW 44-to-29, while IPFW had more steals (nine-to-eight), and fewer turnovers (20-22).
Michigan State put six players into double figure scoring, led by 12 from Porsche Poole, and 11 each from Cetera Washington and Lykendra Johnson.
The Mastodons return to action on Monday, November 15, when the team hosts the Akron Zips in the home opener for IPFW, with tip-off set for 7:00 PM at the Gates Center.
~Dons~
