St. Gregory's Outlasts Park In Defensive Struggle

The St. Gregory's University women's basketball team found a way to win on a night when the shots weren't falling. The Cavaliers outslugged Park (Mo.) University 56-44 in a defensive struggle Wednesday night at W.P. Wood Field House.

SGU (5-5) won for the third time in four games despite shooting only 29 percent from the floor. The Cavs, however, held the visiting Pirates to 33 percent shooting and forced 25 turnovers. Park had only five second-chance points.

"I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day," said SGU coach Herman Burge. "We did a good job of limiting (Park) to one shot. I was proud of the way we were able to grind it out."

SGU had a balanced scoring attack from top to bottom. Freshman Ayrionna Taylor led all scorers with 12 points. Eight Cavs found the scoring column and the home team had a 34-4 advantage in bench scoring.

The first half featured large scoring droughts for each team. SGU started the game by missing its first 11 shots and dug an early 11-2 hole six minutes in. The Pirates led by nine on two more occasions until the 8:16 mark when the Cavs flipped the tables on the visitors. SGU held Park without a field goal for the rest of the half (0-for-10) and went on a 15-2 run to lead 23-19 at the break.

Park shot 26 percent from the field and committed 14 turnovers in the first half compared to 25 percent and 12 miscues for the home team. Leticia Silva led all scorers with eight points on 2 of 3 shooting at intermission.

The Cavs continued to limit Park on the offensive end and extended the lead to 36-27 when Kylee Tatum nailed a three-pointer with just more than 11 minutes left. The Pirates cut it to four at the 9:43 mark, but SGU again responded, this time with a 9-0 run over the next five minutes. Tatum capped the run with a four-point play to make it 48-35.

Tatum finished with nine points and two steals. Kalie Lucas, who came into the game leading the NAIA in blocked shots, had four points, six boards and two rejections.

SGU returns to action Saturday at Southwestern Christian. That game is scheduled for 6 p.m.