CINCINNATI– The Xavier Musketeers women’s basketball team suffer its first loss of the season, losing 62-53 to the Michigan Wolverines at Cintas Center Monday night. Freshman Jenna Crittendon had a career-high 13 points and two assists in the defeat.
Xavier falls to 1-1 for the season as the Wolverines remain undefeated at 2-0. Michigan now leads the all-time series 4-2.
Crittendon made five of her 11 field goal attempts and pulled in six boards, all which are career-highs. In her first game of the season, Jessica Pachko had 10 points and corralled eight boards. Shatyra Hawkes finished with a game-high seven assists, and one shy of her career-high. Hawkes added six points to her effort.
Amber Gray contributed nine points from 3-of-6 shooting from the field and six rebounds. Ashley Wanninger added five points and was 1-of-2 from behind the arc.
The Musketeers battled all game keeping in striking distance for a majority of the second half. However the UM pulled away with a 7-0 run midway through the second half to give them a 56-41 lead. During the span the Wolverines had a 15 point edge, good enough for their largest lead of the game.
A late surge by the Musketeers cut the lead down to 58-51 with 2:49 left remaining. XU went on a 10-2 run lasting 5:13. Unfortunately it was too little too late, as the Wolverines knocked down some late game free-throws to secure the win.
Xavier was stifled by Michigan’s defense all night. The Wolverines were able to force 18 turnovers, and score 16 points off those Musketeer miscues. XU had 35 rebounds to UM’s 30. The Musketeers had more points in the paint 32-22 and fast break points 10-2.
Xavier found itself down 36-31 at half time. Rachel Sheffer of Michigan led all scorers at half with 12 points. Gray led Xavier with seven points and three rebounds. Hawkes tallied five points and five assists in the first 20 minutes.
The Musketeers were able to keep it close with 11:39 left in the first half, falling behind 16-13. The deficit was partly due to the Wolverines shooting 80 percent (4-of-5) from long range. During that span Hawkes was able to create open shots for the Musketeers, resulting in four assists.
With the shot clock running down Wanninger had her baseline jumper blocked, only to be recovered by Gray. Gray converts the layup while getting fouled in the process, and connects on her layup. This cut Michigan’s lead down to 25-24 with 6:06 left in the first half.
Michigan responded with a 7-0 run stretching for 2:11. During the span the Wolverines were able to force three Musketeer turnovers. The run was capped by a deep three by Madison Ristovski in the left corner as the shot clock expired.
Rachel Sheffer of Michigan had a game-high 18 points off of 7-of-14 from the field, including 2-of-3 from deep.
Up next for the Musketeers is High Point next Monday, November 19, 2012 at Cintas Center at 7:00 pm. Stay tuned to GoXavier.com for the latest news of Xavier women’s basketball.
Notes
Michigan went on a 7-0 run in the 1st half lasting 2:11.
Michigan opened the second half with a 6-0 run stretching for 3:05.
Jenna Crittendon scored a career-high nine points.
Xavier had a 10-2 run with 2:21 left in the second half.
Shatyra Hawkes was one assist shy of a career-high.
Jenna Crittendon had career-highs in points (13), field goals (5), field goal attempts (11), three-pointers (1), three-point attempts (3), rebounds (6), and assists (7).
Leave a Reply