Box Score Dec. 14, 2010
Final Stats
WICHITA, Kan. - UC Davis scored 25 unanswered points over a 10-minute span of the first half on Tuesday, took a 20-point halftime lead, and went on to post a 78-66 nonconference women's basketball win over Wichita State at Charles Koch Arena.
The Aggies, who won for the fourth time in their past five games and split a pair of games in Kansas this week, improved to 7-2. Wichita State, which received a game-high 23 points from Haleigh Lankster, fell to 5-4.
Paige Mintun paced UC Davis with 19 points, leading three Aggies in double figures. Kasey Riecks canned four three-pointers and finished with 15 points while Heidi Heintz tallied 13.
UC Davis faced double-digit deficits in each of its previous three matchups and Wichita State put itself on pace to do it to the Aggies again on Tuesday, quickly taking a 5-0 lead on a three-pointer from Heather Robben and a layup from Breanna Dawkins barely 40 seconds into the gam,e
But the Aggies turned the tables, getting four straight points from Paige Mintun to kickstart a 25-0 run which featured six different Aggies scoring and a swarming defense that helped pick up 11 turnovers before Wichiita State would score again. Lankster hit a pair of free throws to end the Shockers' drought with just under eight minutes to go but it would be another another three minutes before they'd get their first field goal since the game's opening minute.
"I think our pace on offense was excellent (during the run)," said head coach Sandy Simpson. "I thought defensively is where we really set the tone. I thought we were in lanes, had a lot of deflections and had a lot of steals, and I thought we got Wichita State back on their heels a little bit maybe wondering what was going on.
"Once we got aggressive defensively it carried over to the offensive end and things kind of flowed from there," he added.
The Aggies dominated the boards early on as well, grabbing 12 offensive rebounds in the first half.
They led by as many as 21 points in the opening half, saw it shrink to 14 but then went up 42-22 at intermission when sophomore Blair Shinoda launched a buzzer-beater from a couple of steps inside the midcourt stripe that found nothing but the net.
The Shockers had 17 turnovers in the first half, resulting in 26 points for UC Davis. The Aggies also displayed balanced scoring with nine different players tallying points but none reaching double figures.
A 9-4 run to start the second half built the lead to 51-26 with 16:26 to go and the lead stayed at least 17 points until the final five minutes when Wichita State made a final push to bring the game to its final 12-point margin.
UC Davis finished the game with 19 steals including a career-high tying six from Lauren Juric. The Aggies had 33 rebounds with Mintun, Heintz, Riecks and Juric each picking up five. Mintun, who was held to a season-low two points during Sunday's loss at Kansas State, erupted for 19 on Tuesday, making 7 of 12 from the field. She also had three steals.
Riecks was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc while Heintz went 4 of 5 from the line and had three assists.
"The most important thing we could take from tonight was that we had a chance to respond to a less-than-stellar effort on Sunday and we did," said Simpson.
Lankster, the Shockers' leading scorer, added eight rebounds to her 23 points. Guard Breanna Dawkins posted a game-high 11 rebounds.
UC Davis, which remained No. 8 in this week's CollegeInsiders.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll, will return to court on Sunday when it visits Causeway Classic rival Sacramento State for a 2 p.m. game at the Hornets' Nest.
