In a Pacific West Conference contest where the victor would secure the second place position, the Antelopes of Grand Canyon University beat the Red Storm women 78-67 on Saturday.
The Red Storm played good defense and had good looks on offense, but just didn't make enough shots to stay with the Antelopes. The Lady Red Storm shot a dismal 30 percent for the game compared to Grand Canyon's 51 percent. Dropping only 18 of their 60 shots provided the recipe for defeat. Junior guard Veronica Siqueiros, a nursing major from Phoenix, Ariz., said the team put in a good effort on defense but the offensive play did not match the defensive side. She said the team is looking forward to playing the Antelopes again on Saturday in St. George.
"It came down to missing shots and not finishing lay-ups," Siqueiros said. "We're going to get them next time. We can't have as bad a shooting day as we had today."
The loss lowered the Red Storm conference record to 5-2 (overall 9-7) and dropped them to third place behind Grand Canyon and PacWest leader Hawaii Pacific University.
Even with the low field goal shooting percentage output by the Red Storm, freshman forward Johnna Brown, an undecided major from Las Vegas, scored her DSC career-high 24 points on 6-12 shooting and 12-14 at the free throw line. Joining Brown in excellent free throw shooting was fellow freshman forward Deanna Daniels, hitting all eight of her charity tries. Daniels, an undecided major from North Las Vegas, usually hovers around 50 percent in free throw shooting.
The Antelopes have the top scorer in the PacWest on their squad, but the Red Storm defense did a respectable job of defending her. Antelope junior guard Samantha Murphy leads the conference at 17 points per game, but the Red Storm guard pressure forced her into nine turnovers. Murphy did score 14 points in the game but the nine turnovers stood out.
A combined effort by Red Storm guards forced 15 turnovers by the Antelope starting guards, and the Storm team as a whole forced 27 turnovers in all. DSC junior guard Amber Scruggs, an undecided major from Los Angeles, Calif., had a lot to do with the good defensive play and had one of her best offensive showings of the season too. She added 12 points, three steals and one rebound. Scruggs' teammate, senior forward Tanya Clark, a business administration major from Beaumont, Calif., complimented her play.
"She [Scruggs] did a good job of guarding number 20; she forced her into a lot of turnovers," Clark said.
Head coach Angela Kristensen said Scruggs' play against PacWest leading scorer (Murphy) was noteworthy.
She said: "I respect her [Scruggs] because she had the toughest assignment in guarding Murphy. She did a good job defensively and played her best all-around game of this season."
The Red Storm met the physical play by the Antelopes and drew 37 foul shot attempts. In comparison, the Antelopes only went to the line 19 times in all.
Kristensen said Grand Canyon had a plan to make the game physical and they executed that plan.
"Those fouls weren't little ticky tacky hand fouls; Deanna and Johnna got beat up," Kristensen said.
The Red Storm's poor field goal shooting prevented them from keeping up with the Antelopes, which is similar to all of their losses this season. Kristensen said the shooting will get better, but she liked the effort of the team.
"That was probably the best defense we have played," Kristensen said. "I really liked our energy and the kids were focused. We just didn't put the nail in the coffin on the offensive end."
The rematch with Grand Canyon will play out Saturday evening in the Burns Arena at 5 p.m. Next week the Storm will travel to Hawaii to play four games in only seven days against University of Hawaii Hilo, Chaminade University, BYU Hawaii and HPU.
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