The University of Denver women’s basketball team (9-8, 4-3 SBC) lost both of their road games this week, falling to North Texas 76-69 and Florida International 55-52.
The Pioneers started their Wednesday game down 4-0, but turned the momentum around by going on an 8-0 run against the North Texas Mean Green at the Super Pit in Denton, Texas.
The Pioneers finished the half up 34-25, leading by as much as 12 points at one point and shooting 48 percent from the floor and 60 percent from the three-point line.
However, the Mean Green rallied back in the second half, and the two teams battled until tied at 63 with three minutes left.
But the Mean Green pulled away for the win, 76-69.
“They were going to force us to handle pressure, and I don’t think we did a great job of it tonight,” said head coach Erik Johnson.
“The farther you go into the season the more that your weaknesses get exposed and I think that was something that North Texas did a very nice job of tonight.”
On Saturday evening, the Pioneers headed to the U.S. Century Bank Arena in Miami to take on the Florida International Golden Panthers.
After returning from the first half with an eight-point lead, the Pioneers began to unravel.
FIU tied the game with less than two minutes left, but DU would not score again, which led FIU to win on free throws with a score of 55-52.
“This was a hard loss for our team. We worked very hard in the last two practices to work on our mistakes from the North Texas game and we showed great signs of improvement in the first half,” said Johnson.
“FIU played a great game down the stretch and their posts did a great job of asserting their presence in the paint and making it difficult for us to get to the basket.”
In the second half, DU made 8-24 shots from the floor and were out-rebounded 13-23.
“We’re not a good enough rebounding team to be able to make up the for the fact that we’re not shooting a great percentage and making all these shots,” said Johnson.
“We take good shots, we’re taking care of the basketball in decent way, but the box out, that fundamental flat out cost us the game tonight and it cost us the game in North Texas.”
The Pioneers finish this stretch of road games at Utah Valley State tomorrow, then return home to host Western Kentucky on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Magness Arena.
