Jacksonville, Fla. - The Stetson women's basketball team (2-4, 0-1 Atlantic Sun) cut a 12-point second half deficit to six points with less than six minutes to go but could get no closer in a 76-61 loss at host Jacksonville (5-1, 1-0 A-Sun) Thursday evening in the A-Sun opener for both teams. Sophomore guard Victoria McGowan (Inkster, Mich.) led all scorers with 25 points for the Hatters.
Jacksonville, the conference's leading rebounding team coming into the game, out-rebounded Stetson 48-34 and only allowed the Hatters two brief leads of one and two points, respectively, in the first half. Taneskei Richardson's layup with 7:39 left in the first half put the Dolphins ahead for good 16-15, starting a 9-0 spurt that would leave the home team ahead 30-22 at halftime.
Stetson hung around for most of the second half but could not quite catch up to the home team, which dominated second-chance points 22-2 and handily out-performed the Hatters from the free throw line. Jacksonville went 16 for 19 from the charity stripe (84.4%) while Stetson made just 14 of 24 attempts (58.3%) on the night.
McGowan did solid work all night for the Hatters, making eight of 15 field goal attempts and going eight for nine from the free throw line. She added three rebounds, three assists and five steals in 30 minutes, becoming the first Stetson player in two years to record five steals in a game. Senior forward Jessica Conner (Cocoa, Fla.) recorded Stetson's first double-double of the year with 11 points and 11 rebounds while freshman forward Sasha Sims (Fayetteville, Ga.) scored 11 points and pulled down five boards.
Lynsey Paschal (18 points, nine rebounds) and Gigi Thomas (18 points) tied for JU's scoring lead while point guard Jessica George also hurt the Hatters with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Richardson led all rebounders in the game with 12.
Stetson completes its December A-Sun weekend Saturday at 4:30 p.m. when it tips off against North Florida at UNF Arena. A link to Live Stats is available on GoHatters.com; Hatter Vision subscribers will also receive the A-Sun.TV feed from UNF. For more information, "like" Stetson Athletics on Facebook, follow @StetsonSID on Twitter and check out the StetsonHatters YouTube channel.
