After losing the first game of their three-game road trip 71-54 to IUPUI (9-11, 4-3 Summit League) last Wednesday, DU women’s basketball rallied to beat IPFW (7-13, 1-6 Summit League) 82-75, winning their first road game of the 2014-2015 season.
DU had previously lost some tough non-conference road games to area rivals Colorado State University and the University of Wyoming. They also did not start this road trip off well with a 17-point loss to IUPUI, and a 27-point-loss to Western Illinois at home before that.
“It really just came down to some loose balls and some rebounding, which are obviously things that we can control,” head coach Kerry Cremeans said. “We know we can be better than that.”
However, while the Pioneers have struggled with consistency in the last few games, they were able to bounce back after those tough losses in order to beat IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was their best shooting performance of this season, and a strong second half—especially in the last few minutes—clinched the game for DU.
Unlike the last few games, where a lack of control over the game’s controllable elements contributed to a couple of hard losses, those elements were a factor in Saturday’s win.
“We talked about the things that we can control. Those are loose balls, hustle points, boxing out, getting big rebounds and they did those things,” coach Cremeans said. “We made some adjustments offensively and they were able to connect on that.”
Denver junior point guard Paige Bradley, senior guard Jordan Johnston, sophomore forward Jesse Spittel and senior guard Morgan Van Riper-Rose all had strong games for DU against IPFW. Bradley, who was recently named College Sports Madness Player of the Week for the Summit League two weeks ago, had a career-high 14 assists, as well as her first double-double of the season. She scored 11 points for the Pioneers.
“Paige really managed the game [Saturday],” Cremeans said. “There was a lot of pressure, full court, half court, a lot of trapping that took place and she had good patience and poise and was able to find the open scorer. She was able to find Jordan [Johnston] and Jesse [Spittel] and credit to them for finishing those shots.”
Johnston had a game-high 21 points for the Pioneers after starting the second half with only two points. Spittel scored a career-high 14 points, as well as having a game-high six rebounds. Van Riper-Rose posted 18 points for DU.
“They bounced back. They understand the process of just getting better everyday. We, as a staff and as a team collectively, we had a really nice meeting to focus on one thing that we want to get better at and they did that [Saturday],” Cremeans said. “Moving forward, we need to keep things as simple as we can and focus on one thing to get better and see how the game falls.
The Pioneers continue their road trip on Wed., Jan. 28 against the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota before returning home on Feb. 4 against IUPUI.
