Nova escapes Cincinnati with win, 54-51

[tpenter]

In truly great escape fashion, the Nova ladies pulled one out of the hat to edge Cincinnati 54-51 today.

Lauren Burford was on fire to start the game hitting five of six shots to put up 14 points before going out with her second foul with about seven minutes left, with Nova leading 18-14. After that Cincinnati exerted some pressure and outscored Nova by 13-5 to go into half with a 27-25 lead.

Nova only got to within 2 points twice in the second hafl, the last being at the 14.54 mark. Cincinnati managed to hold a 4 to 6 point margin most of the way until a Pearson 3 ball with 3:37 pulled them to within 47-45. After trading a couple of baskets Pearson again came through with a short shot to tie the game at 49 with 1;17 left.

After a Cincinnat miss and a Caroline Coyer rebound, the next offensive possession had Coyer hit a three ball on a feed from Pearson to take a 52-49 lead with 19 ticks left on the clock. After a Cincinnati layup at 9 seconds brought them within one, they immediately fouled Coyer who hit both free throws to finish the scoring at 54-51.

Sweeney posted 15 points, almost all in the second half, Burford finished with the 14 first half points and Coyer added 10 to the total. Nine turnovers, with only 2 coming in the second half, even up on the rebounds at 33 apiece.

A scary one, with a happy ending. More inconsistent offense, but enough to overcome a relatively mediocre Cincinnati team. Much more needed if a win against DePaul on Wednesday is going to be possible.

P.S. - added link to Cincinnati website for game story, photos and Cin. coach quotes.
This post was edited on 1/6 7:08 PM by tpenter

Cincinnati website game recap, photos and quotes

 

[needatobaby]

Terry, thanks for the recap. I think "escape" is the right word, and good teams do escape with a good win, on the road. Some talk about best team in last ten years. You know where I come from with that. We had an NCAA team in 2009. Blown out in first round. That team beat ND twice, once at home and once in the BE tournament. Karcic and Kurz. This team is somewhat similar. Solid uypperclassmen with a good support group.. I will try and get to a few home games. Best.

 

[UncleBill57]

Coyer was 6 of 9 in the first half vs Delaware and we were up at half, then lost. This one had Buford with 6 of 9 in the first half with Coyer hitting key shots at the end. Sweeney was a big factor in this one too. We have a number of players who can and do make key contributions with our new key frosh. Congratulations Lady Cats for your away win.

 

[tpenter]

Needato - this year's team has more depth than the 2009 team, even with that super sixth man we had that year, but that team had Kurz, who could just dominate on offense sometimes. That team did win some big games that year, including 8 straight Big East wins after starting off the season in a sluggish mode, including an awful loss at CinCinnati. At this point the jury is still out on whether we can be better than the 2009 team.

First test is tomorrow night at home against DePaul. They are still only playing mostly six players, but they beat us last year with that configuration. DePaul should be favored against us, as well as a lot of other Big East teams, unless and until we prove that we can win some of those games. It's been a long time (since 2009) when we have beaten a favored Big East team.