Mountain Lions fall short in home opener
The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs women's basketball team fought to the end Friday but lost its home opener 75-73 to Newman.
Trailing by 12 with 9 minutes left, the Mountain Lions battled back to cut the deficit to a point with 35 seconds to play.
After Newman's Hadley Freeman made one of two free throw attempts, UCCS had a chance to tie the score or take the lead. But the Mountain Lions missed a good look at a 3-pointer and couldn't convert a jumper as time expired.
"They made big shots and we couldn't execute when we needed to," Lions coach Jessika Caldwell said. "Defensively, we need to play better and we have to be able to knock down our free throws in close games."
UCCS (0-3) made 21 of 34 from the free throw line. Nancy Hoist led the Lions with 14 points and 10 rebounds, helping keep her team close in the second half.
"For us to be able to come back like we did shows how much heart this team has," Hoist said. "We worked very hard tonight, but it just didn't go our way."
In only 14 minutes, Freeman led the Jets (2-3) with 12 points, including going 3 of 5 from beyond the 3-point line.
"Hadley is our best long-range shooter and we were finally able to get her some shots when she was open," Newman coach Tracy Anderson said. "We have already been in some close games this season and I think that helped us at the end of the game tonight."
One of the glaring statistics was bench productivity - Newman's substitutes scored 45 points on 19-of-32 shooting while UCCS's bench chipped in for 27 points on 7-of-28 shooting.
"I think the key to this game was the fact that we were very good at defensive rebounding and executing well on both sides of the floor," Freeman said. "We just wanted to switch screens and force tough shots for their shooters and we did."
UCCS, with only one senior and six freshmen on the roster, committed costly turnovers at critical points, including two in the final 2 minutes.
"We play a lot of players and I think we are still figuring things out," Caldwell said.
