It was not the weekend that the lady Pioneers wanted or expected, but their struggles continued as they lost two home games to South Alabama and Troy State and their losing streak extended to four games.
For Denver not all hope is lost for a ball club that finished last season with a 6-22 overall record and a 4-11 record in Sun Belt Conference play. The ladies are already off to a 9-10 start overall and 3-5 record in conference play and still have seven games remaining until the conference tourney at Middle Tennessee.
“We feel a lot better than last year. This losing streak is tough, but this isn’t the end of it and we are still going to get some wins and look forward to these final conference games,” said senior forward Venice Adams.
The Pioneers opened the weekend on Thursday where they had a 37-31 halftime advantage over South Alabama, but committed too many turnovers and poor decisions and shooting in the second half and fell 74-66.
“The momentum shifted in the second half. We just relaxed and expected them to give us the game and in conference play you can’t have that type of relaxation. You have to fight and compete every minute,” said Adams.
Red shirt freshman Jenna Cole paced DU with 17 points and six rebounds, Adams had 14 points and eight rebounds, sophomore Brooke Meyer had 10 points and sophomore Sara Benham had eight points and seven rebounds.
“The whole game plan was to run on them, I think since we lost momentum it dragged our energy down. I think the main thing is we learned from this loss and can come out Saturday and get a win,” explained Adams.
Getting a win on Saturday is something DU could not get done as they fell 72-65 to Troy State at Magness Arena. This time Troy had a 34-27 halftime lead and the Pioneers could not get over the hump in the second half as they dropped their fourth straight game.
Meyer led the Pioneers with 14 points and three assists, junior Lauren Reini had 10 points and four rebounds and Adams had eight points.
“A goal for us as a team is to win the Sun Belt Conference, and it is not something unreachable for us. I think that we are really going to need to focus on getting some wins down the stretch of this season,” said the Louisiana native.
DU will continue its play and look to get out of their losing ways this Thursday when they host New Orleans (2-18, 0-8) at 7 p.m. at Magness Arena and host Louisiana-Lafayette (14-6, 4-4) on Saturday at the same time and location. Men’s basketball
The Pioneers ended their three-game losing streak last Thursday when they defeated South Alabama 69-60 and Troy State 69-61 on Saturday. DU is now 12-9 overall and 5-3 in conference play.
Thursday night was a total team effort as junior DaShawn Walker had 17 points, senior Yemi Nicholson had 16 points and 11 rebounds and junior David Kummer added 15 points.
Saturday night Nicholson paced the way with 20 points and 20 rebounds, Walker had 21 points with five three-pointers and senior Brett Seger had 12 points.Denver has now won 16 straight home games dating back to last season, which is the ninth-longest in the nation.
The Pioneers will look to improve on their 1-8 road record for the season when they travel to New Orleans on Thursday night and Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday evening.
