The Chadron State College women’s basketball team rallied back from a 21-point second half deficit, trailing by only one with under three minutes to play, but came a step or two short from completing the comeback in a 75-66 win for the visiting CSU-Pueblo ThunderWolves on Friday evening in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
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CSC falls to 0-7 (0-1 RMAC), while CSUP improved to 4-3 (1-0 RMAC) with the win.
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For the third time in as many games, the Eagles opened up a multiple-possession lead in the early minutes of the first period. The ThunderWolves’ offense ran through Fresno State transfer Charisse Fairley, who started the game 4-of-5 from three-point range, helping her team to a 23-18 lead after 10 minutes.
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The Eagles shot the long ball as well as they have all season in the first half, landing four of nine from downtown, but struggled with only a 33 percent success rate inside the arc. Meanwhile, the ThunderWolves managed a gaudy 55.6 percent from long range, and they took a 46-28 lead into the locker room.
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In the second half, Pueblo’s shooting returned to earth, and the Eagles were able to hold turnovers to a minimum. CSC shot 48.4 percent from the field and forward Ashayla Powers poured in 20 of her 25 points, on 8-of-9 field goal shooting, to help her team surge back into the game.
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CSC had runs of 14-4, in the second half of the third quarter, and 14-3, midway through the fourth, to virtually bottleneck the two teams at 66-65, with 2:49 to play. However the Eagles missed their last three field goals of the game, while Pueblo hit three of its last four to salt away the game.
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Fairley and Powers both led the way for their teams in scoring and rebounding. Fairley led Pueblo with 32 points and eight rebounds. Powers had 25 and eight.
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Despite only scoring once, JaNaiya Davis helped the ThunderWolves’ attack with nine assists.
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Chadron State continues searching for its first win on Saturday, when it hosts New Mexico Highlands at a new Saturday evening home tip-off of 4 p.m.