The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
UAB
TCU
Women's Basketball Falls Just Short Against TCU
2/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2002
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - With TCU leading 66-64 and three seconds remaining to play in the game, Candace Baldwin stepped to the line and hit two free throws to lift the Horned Frogs to a 68-64 victory over UAB in Conference USA women's basketball action at Bartow Arena.
Sandora Irvin led the Horned Frogs with 14 points, Kati Safaritova added 13 points and Ebony Shaw posted 11 points for TCU.
The Horned Frogs shot 42.4 percent from the floor and held UAB to 34.5 percent shooting from the floor. However, UAB won the rebounding battle, edging TCU 49-36 on the glass.
Michelle Smith and Shaquetta Rhodes each posted double-doubles for the Lady Blazers. Rhodes had 14 points and a career high 18 rebounds. Smith scored 18 points to go along with 12 rebounds, and had an 8-9 shooting performance from the free throw line. Natasha Thomas led all scorers with 21 points.
UAB was playing without its starting point guard, Chantell Thomas. Thomas suffered a broken nose Friday in the Lady Blazers' game against Houston.
"I thought we came out and played hard at the beginning and we thought we had a good chance at winning at the end," said UAB Head Coach Jeannie Milling. "I thought we played well, considering we did not have our starting point guard, due to her broken nose. In the second half, we dominated the boards and we went to the line. I am proud of our kids. They played hard. I hate that we lost, but we have improved significantly over the weekend."
TCU (17-4, 7-1 C-USA) led the entire second half, but UAB (9-13, 1-8 C-USA) was able to cut the lead to two at 66-64 on a jumper by Rhodes with four seconds remaining to play.
UAB jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead to begin the game, but TCU battled back and took the lead for good with a 9-8 advantage at the 14:57 mark of the first half. TCU led 34-31 at the half.
UAB returns home to Bartow Arena Sunday to face C-USA rival South Florida at 2 p.m.
