While the rest of the school had a break for the holidays, the
Saint Louis University women’s basketball team played seven
games.
The most recent of the two were this past weekend when the
Billikens lost to No. 18 Texas Christian, 69-66, and No. 25 Houston
70-55 in the first two games of conference play. Sunday’s game puts
the losing streak at seven for the Bills.
The Bills started the game out strong and at the half led the
Horned Frogs 40-20, with Billiken forward Angie Lewis scoring
20.
“We focused on their outside shooting. We needed to get some
wins after losing five in row,” Stephanie Solomon said. “It was our
first conference game and we were pumped and ready to play.”
The second half seemed to be a completely different story for
the Billikens, with TCU coming out of the locker room to start the
half with a 17-2 run, cutting the lead to 42-41 at the 14:28 mark.
SLU answered the Horned Frogs’ run with a 6-0 one of their own.
With three consecutive three pointers at the 8:11 mark, the
Billiken lead diminished to one once again.
After the four-minute mark in the second half, the lead changed
back and forth between the two teams. With 43 seconds to go, Lewis
hit a short jumper to pull the Billikens within one at 67-66.
But with the shot clock winding down, the Horned Frogs were able
to make a lay-up. A last-second three-pointer attempt was just a
bit long, and the Bills lost 69-66.
“We did well on our foul shots, but we needed more than just
foul shots to win a game,” Solomon said. “We were looking to start
off our conference games with some wins, but we were also playing
the two hardest teams in our conference, with both of them being
ranked.”
The Horned Frogs put extra pressure on Lewis, allowing her only
six points in the second half, but she still had 26 points to end
the game.
Kirsti Holloway added 12 points of her own, and Solomon snatched
nine rebounds. The Bills out-shot the Horned Frogs in the first
half 42 percent to 37 percent, but the Horned Frogs came back in
the second half to out-shoot the Bills 48 percent to 32
percent.
The next conference game for the Bills also didn’t go as well as
they had hoped. With All-American Chandi Jones putting in 26 points
for Houston, the Bills suffered their seventh straight loss while
Houston celebrated its seventh straight win.
The Cougars opened the game with a 10-0 run and continued to
hold the lead the entire game. The Cougars were up 23-15 and went
on another 10-0 run.
With time winding down in the first half, the Bills put their
best effort forward and showed the Cougars a 10-0 run of their
own.
The Bills ended the half only behind by 10, 35-25. In the second
half the Bills looked to make a comeback, but Houston scored the
first four points of the half and always had a lead of at least 12
for the rest of the game.
Holloway had a career high of 18 points, hitting half of her
shots. Lakrisha Brown recorded her first career double-double on 12
points and a career-best 10 rebounds. Shea Kenny dished out a
career-high 10 assists. The Billikens dip to 6-9, 0-2 in C-USA. The
Billikens are next in action on Fri., Jan. 16, when they travel to
Louisville for a 6 p.m. (CT) start. This is the first conference
road game for the Bills, but they are ready to play. “We have
already showed that we can play with the top teams in this
conference and now we are just looking to end this losing streak,”
Solomon said.
