CHICAGO – Chicago State women's basketball kicked off its 2010-11 schedule today as it fell to host Eastern Kentucky by a score of 74-61 at EKU's McBrayer Arena in Richmond, Ky.
Both teams battled through eight ties and five lead changes for most of the first half with senior Tressa Beckel (Waseca, Minn./Wisconsin) (Waseca, Minn.) scoring 10 points. EKU later broke a 28-28 tie by scoring four points in less than a minute to gain a 32-28 advantage on layups from sophomore Alex Jones and senior Cherie White before senior Elana Wroten (Chicago, IL/Morgan Park) (Chicago, Ill.) cut the home team's lead to 32-30 with a layup at the 27-second mark before halftime.
The Colonels opened the second half with a 10-2 scoring drive over four minutes to increase their leading margin to 44-34 after a Jones layup with 15:47 remaining in the contest. CSU then went on to score 15 of the next 27 points over a near eight-minute span to pull within 56-47 at the 7:51 mark following a Beckel jumper.
EKU then outscored the Cougars by an 18-11 margin in a seven-minute span to take its biggest lead of the game at 74-58 with 28 second left in the game en route to the win.
Beckel tallied a double-double of 18 points and a game-high 10 rebounds with three steals to lead Chicago State. Junior Natalie Marlowe (South Milwaukee, WI/South Milwaukee) (South Milwaukee, Wis.) added 12 points and three steals, and junior Janay Dockery (Detroit, MI/Martin Luther King) (Detroit, Mich.) contributed 11 points and four assists. Senior Courtney Waldon (Sun Prairie, WI/Sun Prairie) (Sun Prairie, Wis.) posted 10 points and three steals for the Cougars.
Jones led all scorers with 19 points to pace Eastern Kentucky, while freshman Marie Carpenter contributed 14 points and White added 13 points. Senior Nadia Mossong and Bass each recorded 10 points.
The Cougars return to the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center on Tuesday night for their home opener against Horizon League foe Milwaukee with a start time of 7 p.m.
~CSU~
