Women’s Basketball Late Rally Falls Short at Chicago

(CHICAGO, Ill.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team traveled to the University of Chicago on Sunday, February 1.  In the University Athletic Association (UAA) contest, the Tartans late rally was not enough as they fell 84-77. Carnegie Mellon is now 11-7, 2-5 in UAA play.  Chicago improves to 12-6, 6-1.

Junior Lindsay Poss (Poolesville, Md.) scored the first seven points of the game, but over the next six minutes Chicago used a 16-2 run and claimed a 16-9 lead.  The Maroons continued to hold the lead and took their largest lead of the half, 31-17 with 7:33 to play before Carnegie Mellon used a 14-5 run to cut the deficit to 36-31 with 3:26 showing on the clock.  During Carnegie Mellon's run five different Tartans scored.  

The half closed with Chicago scoring eight straight and took a 44-31 lead into the locker room.  The Maroon shot 50% (7-14) from behind the arc during the first 20 minutes of play while the Tartans converted 3-of-5 from long range.

A pair of foul shots by sophomore Lisa Murphy (McLean, Va./McLean) made the score 51-43 Chicago three minutes into the second frame.  Murphy's freebies ended an 8-2 run for the Tartans.  The Maroon's quickly pushed their lead back to double digits scoring 14 of the next 19 points and led 65-48 with 12:44 to play.

The Tartans didn't go down without a fight.  The visitor's trailed 78-61 with five minutes to play before rattling off 10 unanswered and cut the lead to 78-71 with 2:06 to play.  Carnegie Mellon pulled to within five at 82-77 with 20 seconds to play on a Murphy's put-back layup, but that was as close as the Tartans got.

Poss led the Tartans with her fifth double-double of the season pouring in a career-high 21 points and hauling down a game-high 11 rebounds.  Murphy continued her streak of double figure contest which reached 21 after scoring 19. Junior Liza Otto (Glastonbury, Conn.) chipped in with 14 points and freshman Anna Novak (San Antonia, Texas/Alamo Heights) added 13.

Morgan Donovan led Chicago with 18 points. Claire Devaney added 15, Hannah Ballard had 12 and Ali Shaw along with Britta Nordstrom each scored 11.

Carnegie Mellon returns to UAA action on Friday, February 6 when the entertain Washington University at 6:00 p.m. on the hardwood of Skibo Gymnasium.