Kansas City
Seattle U
UMKC Falls To Redhawks In WAC Opener
1/7/2016 11:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball
(Kansas City, Mo.) – Taylor Leathers notched her first double-double of the season and Samantha Waldron scored a season-high in UMKC women's basketball's 69-63 loss to Seattle on Thursday night at the Connolly Center in the WAC opener.
“I'm proud of our team's effort tonight and how hard we fought on the road,” UMKC Head Coach Marsha Frese said. “The improved play of our point guards, in particular Sierra Bone, has allowed us to take the next step forward in the development of our young team. I know they will learn from this one.”
Waldron led the 'Roos with 19 points, knocking down a career-high 6-of-11 from long range, two rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Leathers scored in double figures for the second straight game, finishing with 12 points and a season-high 10 rebounds.
With the loss, UMKC drops to 5-9 overall and 0-1 in the WAC, while Seattle improves to 7-9 on the season and 1-0 in the conference.
UMKC jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the contest on back-to-back baskets from Kiana Law, but five straight from Seattle gave the Redhawks their first lead of the game at 5-4.
UMKC would go back in front at 6-5 and 8-7 on field goals from Sierra Bones and Aries Washington, but the Redhawks answered with the game's next nine points to take an eight point lead with just under two minutes remaining in the quarter.
The 'Roos, however, closed the quarter with the final six points, getting the first two on baskets from Leathers off Bone assists and the final from Law on an assist from Waldron, cutting the deficit to 16-14 at the end of the first stanza.
Kansas City continued to attack the Redhawks at the start of the second, scoring the first nine points of the quarter on two buckets from Washington, one from Law and a three from Bone to stretch the run to 15-0 and put the 'Roos ahead by seven.
UMKC maintained the seven point advantage two possessions later, but Seattle ended the half with 15 of the final 18 points to take a 33-30 lead into the break.
Coming out of halftime, Seattle stretched the lead to five, before back-to-back threes from Waldron put UMKC back in front by one.
Ceidra Coleman followed by finding Kristen Moore for baskets on back-to-back possessions to put UMKC on a 10-0 run and ahead by five midway through the quarter.
UMKC held onto the lead until the 3:09 mark of the quarter when and 8-0 run by the Redhawks gave SU a five point edge.
Waldron, though, buried another three to close the quarter and pull the Kangaroos to within two entering the final stanza.
In the fourth, Seattle built the lead to eight halfway in, but a three from Waldron and a jumper from Leathers cut it to three with just under four minutes remaining.
The lead would grow back to eight with one minute on the clock, when Leathers buried a three and got fouled to cut the margin to four with 24.1 seconds left.
Seattle, though, would knock down its free throws down the stretch to hold on for the victory.
Individually, Law and Washington both scored eight points, with Law grabbing seven rebounds and Washington tallying six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Bone, meanwhile, added six points, a team-high five assists and two rebounds and Kristen Moore finished with six points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field.
Once again, the 'Roos dominated the glass, out-rebounding the Redhawks 35 to 25, leading to a 16-4 advantage on second chance points.
The Blue & Gold will be back in action again on Saturday when they continue WAC play at Bakersfield on Jan. 9 at 5 p.m. CT.
