Houghton - The Wayne State women's basketball team opened up Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on a down note Thursday night as No. 1 Michigan Tech (4-0, 1-0 GLIAC) capitalized on a poor first half from the Warriors to defeat WSU (1-4, 0-1 GLIAC) 70-42 at the SDC Gymnasium in Houghton, Mich.
The Warriors shot just 25.4 percent (15-59) from the field while the Huskies went 24-50 (48 percent) and connected on 10 three-pointers. For the second straight game, Wayne State was able to win the turnover battle by forcing 12 Michigan Tech miscues compared to just 11 for WSU.
After only scoring two points in the first half, senior guard Brooke Bowers (Delphos, Ohio/Jefferson) came on strong in the second period to finish with a game-high 16 points thanks in part to 3-6 shooting from three-point range. Freshman forward Chelsea Davis (Canton, Mich./Plymouth Salem) also added nine points.
Freshman guard Paige Sickmiller (Washington, Mich./Romeo) went 3-5 from the floor to finish with seven points while also grabbing a team-best four rebounds. Freshman forward Deanna Crumpton (Kentwood, Mich./East Kentwood) had two blocks to extend her streak of games with two or more rejections to four.
Thanks to a triple by sophomore guard Felicia Thomas (Kalamazoo, Mich./Central) on the Warriors' opening possession and a jumper from Davis shortly after, WSU was ahead for the first 3:20 of the game before the Huskies were able to tie the contest at 5-5 heading into the first media timeout.
From that point on the half belonged to Michigan Tech as Wayne State would go cold from the floor and suffer through scoreless stretches of 8:02 and 3:25 respectively. MTU took a 35-12 lead into the break.
Freshman guard Phaebre Colbert (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Northern) led WSU in the opening stanza with three points and three rebounds.
Despite the large deficit, Wayne State would not quit and started the second half on a 7-2 spurt with Davis accounting for five of the points while Bowers delivered the other two to close Michigan Tech's lead to 37-19.
Later in the period Wayne State unleashed an impressive 11-3 run that saw four different Warriors score to eat away at the Huskies lead. However, Michigan Tech would erase any notion of a WSU comeback by outscoring WSU 20-12 over the final 7:44 of the second period to secure the 72-40 victory.
Wayne State shot 40 percent from both the field and the three-point line in the second half while only being outscored in the second 20 minutes of action by a slim 35-30 margin.
Three players scored in double figures for the top-ranked Huskies with senior forward Katie Wysocky posting a double-double of 12 points and 16 rebounds to lead the way.
Wayne State will be back in action on Saturday at Northern Michigan. Tip-off is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. in Marquette.
