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Women stifle Memphis, earn no. 6 seed

Posted on Mar 08, 2010 in Sports

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Thursday night in Bartow, the Blazers Women’s Basketball team celebrated their annual Pink Zone game against the Memphis Tigers. The Blazers were triumphant as they soared over the Tigers 64-53.

The game raised more than $9,000 for the Coach Gene Bartow Fund for Cancer Research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Blazers entered Bartow a night after the devastating loss of the men’s team to Memphis, but they didn’t let that deter them. Memphis scored the first points of the game; however, the Blazers went on a 33-15 run for the rest of the first half, leading the Tigers by as many as 19 points towards the end of the half.

The Blazers shot 63 percent from 3-pointer range and made four out of five free throws. They entered the locker room up, over the Tigers 33-18.

At the beginning of the second half, the Tigers attempted to cut the Blazers’ lead short, and after about six minutes of play, they were within nine. But the Blazers would ultimately pull away again, adding 31 points to their first half total.
Memphis was able to add 35 points of their own, giving them a game total of 53 points, but the Blazers’ first half damage was too much too for the Lady Tigers to overcome.

In the glow of the senior night lights, senior Tamika Dukes delivered one of her best performances, capturing her fourth career double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

She also sealed the victory with six-straight free throws in the last minutes of play.

The Lady Blazers also said goodbye to their other senior Erica Simpson.

With the win, the Blazers head into the C-USA tournament seated six overall with a 14-14 overall record, 8-8 C-USA play.

The Blazers meet the 11th seated Tulsa Owls on Monday. From there, the Lady Blazers could potentially play the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds Houston and SMU, respectively. The Lady Blazers will most likely need to win the C-USA tournament for a chance at qualifying for the NCAA Women’s tournament at the end of March.
 

Email: kmwoodr@uab.edu