Poets drop two at UCSC tournament

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Issue 13, Joseph Marlitt, tournament, UCSC, Women's Basketball, Sports - By Joseph Marlitt on Thursday, December 8, 2011 - 03:37

The Women’s basketball team struggled for the second game in a row as they fell to Menlo 73-49 on Saturday, Sept. 3. The loss came on the heels of their loss of friday to the host team UCSC 69-42. The Poets end the weekend tournament at UC Santa Cruz with an 0-2 record and are now 1-5 overall on the season with their sole win coming at home against Linfield.
Junior forward Alex Coon led the poets with 11 points on 4-8 shooting and added seven rebounds. First-year Dannika Navales-Lugtu recorded both of the Poets three-pointers during the game and ended up with 10 points on 4-8 shooting.

The Poets continue to struggle with turnovers as they gave up the ball 21 times, leading to 24 points off of those turnovers. The Oaks defense seemed to be the difference in the game as the held the Poets to 31 percent shooting on 21-67 from the field. The purple and gold were also cold from downtown as they shot 2-19 from three.

Whittier had lead early in the game after Coon made a lay to put the Poets up 8-7. But a 31-17 point run by Menlo opened up the game and they Poets would find themselves in a 15-point hole at half-time with the score at 39-24. The Oaks continued their run into the second half and were leading by 33 points with two minutes left in the game. The Oaks bench had a big influence on the game as they outscored the Poet’s bench 29-16.

The poor shooting spells were also a problem during the Poet’s loss against UCSC. The Poets shot 27 percent, going 17-63 during the game fromt he field and shooting 1-13 from three point range during the 69-42 loss. They committed 29 turnovers during the game that led to 24 points by UCSC. They also added 15 steals to further add to the Poets offensive misery.
Coon led the Poets with 13 points on 5-14 shooting and shooting 3-4 from the foul stripe. The bench also contributed 16 points to the effort with five different players scoring.