UC Women Fall Short in WVC Showdown
February 11, 2005

By Mike Cherry
Sportswriter, Charleston Daily Mail

For days the University of Charleston women's team heard about its upcoming showdown with Fairmont State.

Fellow students would approach the players on the South Ruffner campus to offer verbal support for the game matching two nationally ranked squads. Head coach Sherry Winn heard cries of "good luck" and "go get ‘em.'" This was obviously no average mid-season West Virginia Conference contest.

Minutes after Thursday night's 66-58 victory by host Fairmont, Winn thought the buildup was perhaps too much for her seniorless team.

"We were very tense," Winn said.

"We weren't relaxed in playing our game. Everybody around you is so excited, it was hard for our players not to react to this."

Still, UC (20-3, 13-1 in WVC) trailed just 56-54 with fewer than three minutes left before becoming the 20th straight victim of the seventh-ranked Falcons (22-1, 12-0). The 10th-ranked Golden Eagles saw their own 14-game win streak snapped in the battle for first place in the WVC.

"Our program has gone from the bottom of the league a couple of years ago," Winn said. "I'm not sure we've (risen as far) emotionally as we have in our talent."

The game matched the fast-break speed of UC against the good half-court and perimeter game of Fairmont. The Falcons eventually rose on a combined 48 points by its top two scorers, senior guard Kristen Gattuso and junior small forward Ashley Reed, to clip the Golden Eagles in the teams' only regular-season meeting.

The left-handed Gattuso, Fairmont State's leading career scorer, contributed a game-high 25 points, including a dagger of a 3-pointer with 2:43 left to give the Falcons a 59-54 edge.

"Those were two really, really good Division II teams playing," Fairmont Coach Steve McDonald said. "It was a fun game to prepare for because they were excited."

So was the campus, apparently. A crowd listed as 1,879 at a half-full Feaster Center was noisy, even participating in stomp-the-bleachers chants. By time the men's nightcap began, about half had left the gym on the snowy evening.

UC loitered until the final minutes on the strength of 22 points by junior forward Lisa Lee and the 12 points (10 after halftime) by Courtney Thomas. Winn, however, thought UC rushed too many shots instead of patiently working for better ones.

"We tried to make ‘home run' passes," Winn said. "They were a lot more relaxed."

The teams began to separate at the end of the first half when Reed, a Fairmont Senior High graduate, hit three straight shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, to put the Falcons up 35-30 at intermission.

The 5-foot-5 Reed moved to forward this season after playing point guard most of her life.

Her quick release, she said, is a result of playing basketball with boys as a kid and having to hurry to get shots off. She finished with 23 points and sank 5-of-10 3-pointers.

Reed became eligible in December after arriving as a double-transfer. She made the all-Southern Conference freshman team while spending a year at East Tennessee State. Seeking to move close to home, she transferred to Duquesne, but lasted just a semester. Reed said she left because of the Dukes' style of play.

"There really isn't that much difference in low Division I and high Division II," she said.

Reed added she was wowed by the crowd.

"I had goosebumps before the game," she said.

The result will likely influence the next regional rankings, as well. UC was ranked first, Clarion second and Fairmont third in the latest one.

Fairmont will probably climb ahead of UC although Reed does not think the Golden Eagles will stay in the Falcons' rearview mirrors.

"We knew we had to bring our A-game," Reed said. "We also know we'll face them again."