Purdue Fort Wayne
Centenary (LA)
Mastodon Defense Dominant in 40-Point Win
2/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2010
Fort Wayne, IN - On IPFW's third annual Pink Out, the Mastodon defense held Centenary to just nine first half points, and 28 points over the full 40 minutes, both IPFW Division I records for defense, as the Blue and White held the Ladies of Centenary to 21.7 percent shooting (10-of-46) in a 68-28 Summit League win.
The Pink Out portion of the game saw IPFW wear pink shoes, and both teams wear pink shooting shirts. Additionally, IPFW donated $1 for every ticket sold, and also held a silent auction, with all proceeds to benefit the Vera Bradley Foundation.
"I was really nervous about this game," said IPFW head coach Chris Paul. "Whenever you play a game that is a big promotional event, and you put on the pink shoes, sometimes the players come out with too much excitement. I was proud of the way we came out and executed early, got an early lead, and then kept that intensity. Even when we got a big lead, our kids continued to play hard, and I was proud of them for that."
Every Mastodon player in uniform scored in the lopsided win, as three IPFW players reached double figure points, led by a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double by Stephanie Rosado. Anne Boese scored a dozen points while pulling down a career-high eight rebounds, with Chelsey Jackson scoring 11 off of the bench.
IPFW forced 35 Centenary turnovers, including grabbing a season-high 16 steals, six by Sarah Haluska who added six points and four rebounds. IPFW also out-rebounded the Ladies 43-37, the 11th time this year the Mastodons have out-rebounded their opponent; however, the it was the first time since the last game against Centenary on January 11.
"We have to get back to doing the things that got us off to our fast start in league play," said the head coach. "We were winning early games because we were playing defense, and all of a sudden we go on our road trip, and we allow South Dakota State to shoot over 60 percent, and North Dakota State to shoot over 50 percent, and that's not what was winning games for us. We took it as a challenge in this game to sit down and focus on our defense. After that first half our goal was to keep them in the 30's, and we didn't let up. Even when we went to the bench, I felt like our kids came out with intensity. I'm really proud that we held them to just 28 points."
The 28 points is the fewest allowed by IPFW in a game since the 1979-80 team held Summit Bible to 23 points in an 87-23 win. The total is tied for the sixth fewest in school history, with five of those six totals coming against Summit Bible, including a school-record-low 20, earlier in that same 1979-80 season.
IPFW jumped out quickly, when Courtney Reed received the tip, and found Rosado streaking to the basket three seconds into the contest. The Mastodon defense kept the Ladies off the board for the opening 6:21 of the game, jumping ahead 7-0 through that point. Centenary fought back to close the gap to just two when Jalena Sanders scored two of her team-high 10 points with 10:35 on the clock, taking the score to 7-5.
After the 10:35 mark, after the teams traded baskets, the IPFW defense kept Centenary without a field goal, and just two free throws total, until Leslie Forest hit a lay-in with 12:29 left in the second half, a span of 18:06 of game clock time. During that time, IPFW scored 34 points, to increase their lead to 34 at 43-9.
The game never got any closer, as the 'Dons led by as many as 42, before settling on the final margin of 40 after Sanders ended the game with a basket with 23 seconds remaining.
The Mastodons return to the court on Monday, February 8, when the team takes on current Summit League leader Oral Roberts, with tip-off slated for 7:00 PM at the Hilliard Gates Sports Center.
~Dons~
