Women's Basketball Falls On Road to Buena Vista
Feb 9, 2019
STORM LAKE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque women’s basketball team faltered in the second half and lost to the Buena Vista Beavers on Saturday afternoon, 95-73.
The Spartan women have been in their fair share of close games in the recent weeks and this one was no different through the first 20 minutes. The two teams seemingly alternated leads every possession in the opening quarter but the Beavers would have the last lead of the quarter at 17-15.
Buena Vista would open up the first three minutes of the second quarter scoring 12 of the first 16 points to put the Spartans down 10. The Spartans punched right back, going on a 14-0 run over the next four minutes to regain the lead at 32-29. The two teams would exchange leads four times over the final two minutes, leading to a 39-38 Buena Vista lead at halftime.
In the first half, UD outshot Buena Vista by a wide margin at 48.4% (15-31) to 31.8% (14-44), UD committed 16 turnovers to give the Beavers 13 extra chances. Abigail Zurcher, Kia Dwight and Lexi Daniels combined for 30 of UD’s 38 first half points, each recording 10.
Despite Abigail Zurcher sinking a shot right before the first half buzzer for the Spartan, that momentum would not carry over to the beginning of the second half as the Beavers went on a 15-4 run to open up another 10 point lead. The Spartans would get that deficit back down to 10 but Buena Vista stopped the Spartans before the run really got going and pushed their lead back up to 13 by the end of the third quarter.
The Spartans would fall behind has many as 24 and could never make another run of their own to fall 95-73. Dwight, Zurcher, and Daniels, who led the Spartans in scoring at halftime would go on to be the top three UD scorers for the game. Dwight would finish with 18, Zurcher with 13 and Daniels with 10. Freshman Miah Smith continues to grab rebounds at a record rate, hauling in 10 more against Buena Vista.
The UD women have the week off before closing out the 2018-19 season at home on Saturday, Feb. 16th at 2:00 p.m.
