Weber State University Athletics
Weber State University
Portland State
Slide Continues for Wildcats
1/8/2009 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
OGDEN, Utah -- The Weber State women's basketball team (5-9) dropped its fourth-straight game on Thursday night and fell to 0-2 in the Big Sky Conference as Portland State (10-5 overall; 3-0 Big Sky) claimed a 76-63 win at the Dee Events Center.
"We played hard tonight," said WSU head coach Carla Taylor. "I was pleased with our effort, especially on the defensive end. We just need to clean up things that we are doing to ourselves."
The Wildcats jumped out early with a 15-4 run to open the game, but the Vikings outscored WSU 28-9 over the next 10-and-a-half minutes to take an eight-point lead with 4:41 remaining in the opening half.
Ali Thorderson cut the lead to two points on a three-pointer with 37 seconds left in the half, but PSU's Claire Faucher answered with a three of her own on the next possession and the Vikings took a 42-37 lead into the break.
Weber State got within three points at the 18:47 mark of the second half on a Tonya Schnibbe layup, but Portland State scored the next 14 points to put the game away. The Wildcats would not get any closer than 10 points for the remainder of the contest.
The Wildcats held the Big Sky's leading scorer, Kelsey Kahle to only five points, but Faucher stepped up to score a game-high 20 points for Portland State. Faucher hit 7 of 12 shots, including 4 of 6 from three-point range. She also grabbed six rebounds and had three assists.
The Vikings also got a boost from their bench, as they outscored the Wildcats 30-12 in bench points. Kate Depaepe led the bench charge scoring 12 points. She also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for the Vikings.
"Bench scoring was a big difference in this game," said Taylor. "We did a nice job on Kahle, but they had people step up and got a lot of production off the bench."
Ten of the Wildcats' 12 bench points came from Sarah Conner, who was back in the lineup just eight days after having an appendectomy. Conner also had two rebounds, two steals, one assist and a blocked shot in 23 minutes of action.
Schnibbe led the Wildcats with 17 points on 5 of 17 shooting and recorded a game-high eight assists. Caitlin Anderson added 12 points for the Wildcats and pulled down seven rebounds. Joey O'Neill added eight points and tied a career-high with 13 rebounds.
The Wildcats will be back in action on Saturday as they play host to Eastern Washington. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at the Dee Events Center.
