Dec. 11, 2004

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery

Honolulu, HI. - (Friday, December 10, 2004) As the case with most vacations people often time return home with more stuff than when they left with. For the Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team they return to the mainland with two more losses than they arrived with. It was far from a vacation for the Otahkians as they lost their second game of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Invitational against Western Athletic Conference opponent BYU, 62-52 on Friday evening in the Stan Sheriff Center.

Southeast (4-3) played valiantly but the size and experience of the Cougars (5-1) is what ultimately led to the ten-point loss. The difference in the game ended up being rebounding as BYU had 44 rebounds (14 offensive) as Southeast could only muster 27 and only six offensive boards. The offensive boards led to a 18-3 scoring advantage in second-chance points for the Cougars.

The outcome of the game was up for grabs until the final two minutes of the game. Tatiana Conceicao (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Western Nebraska CC) scored and was fouled on a lay-up to cut the Cougar lead to three, 55-52 at the 2:13 mark. She missed the free throw and Southeast would go the rest of the game without a basket.

The game started off very encouraging for Southeast as they jumped out to a 8-0 lead as they used their athletic ability and full court pressure to force five quick BYU turnovers and making them miss their first four shots in the first 4:23 of play.

That changed when Ambrosia Anderson checked in for the Cougars. Anderson scored the Cougars first ten points and they took the lead, 16-14 on a Kristen Kozlowski jumper, a lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the game.

Conceicao scored seven points in the first half, but the BYU match-up zone forced her away from the basic as she only made three of her ten shots from the field.

Anderson led all scorers at the half with 14 points.

In the second half Southeast twice pulled to within one, the last time with 10:37 to play.

Southeast was able to shutdown Anderson in the second half holding her to only six points, but Kozlowski made up the difference scoring eight in the second half.

For the second straight game Southeast struggled with the outside shot as they made only four of their 16 three-pointers (22.2 percent). Southeast also had trouble getting to the foul line as they only attempted six free throws, including only one attempt in the first half.

Conceicao finished with a team-high 16 points. Brandi Russia (Cincinnati, OH/Northeastern Oklahoma A&M) joined Conceicao in double-figures with 10 points.

Simone Jackson (Kingston, Jamaica/Southeastern Illinois CC) continued her hot shooting off the bench contributing six points. In her two games in Hawaii she averaged 11 points and shot a scorching 83-percent from the field missing only two shots.

Anderson finished with a double-double for the Cougars with game-highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds. Kozlowski finished with 16 points.

Southeast goes from the tropical weather of Hawaii to the cold and windy weather of Chicago to take on the University of Illinois-Chicago on Saturday, December 18. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. and the game can be heard live on C-106 FM or by audio stream on gosoutheast.com.