Jan. 7, 2009

Final Stats

ADRIAN, Mich. - The women's basketball squad had a marquee matchup on Wednesday night against Saint Mary's and just fell short in a 74-69 loss to the Belles. The two stats that stood out in this contest between evenly matched teams were turnovers and points off those turnovers. Adrian committed 22 turnovers but seemed to settle down in the second half with seven miscues. Saint Mary's coughed it up 16 times but held a substantial 29-11 edge in points off turnovers.

Saint Mary's led 37-30 at halftime closing out the half on a 14-6 run in the final 4:08. There were six ties and four lead changes in the opening 20 minutes. Adrian shot 37.5 percent in the first half while Saint Mary's shot 38.2 percent.

The Belles led throughout the second half as they hit big shots right when the Bulldogs seemed to be right on the cusp of taking a lead. Saint Mary's continued to lead 47-45 after 10 minutes had gone by in the second half. Adrian cut the lead to one point on three separate occasions in the final 10 minutes but could not climb the mountain.

The Bulldogs were trailing 70-69 with 57 seconds left after a three-point play by junior guard Anita Stamps. Adrian had a chance to take the lead with 28 seconds left by a pass went off the outstretched hands of Stamps. Liz Wade made a pair of free throws with 23 seconds to put SMC up 72-69. Jennifer Perrin lost the ball off her leg with 15 seconds to play and the Belles' Nicole Beier made two more big free throws to ice the game at 74-69. Saint Mary's improves to 7-6 overall and 5-0 in the MIAA while Adrian drops to 9-3 overall and 2-2 in the MIAA.

Stamps was one shy of her career high with 23 points. She was 7-of-18 from the floor and 4-of-5 from behind the arc in 32 minutes. Stamps also was 5-of-5 at the free throw line and had eight rebounds. Perrin tied her career high with 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting. She grabbed three boards and dished out three assists in a career-high 38 minutes. Adrian shot 44.1 percent in the second half and finished the game 6-of-16 from the arc and 9-of-14 at the charity stripe.