DENVER – The Regis University women's basketball team started off the back end of its homestand in confident fashion and came away with a 72-46 victory over Adams State at Regis Field House on Friday.
 
How It Happened: Following a layup while being fouled with 5:12 left in the third to make the score, 46-28, junior forward Whitney Jacob successfully converted her 3-point play and gave the Rangers a 47-28 lead. This proved to be too much for the Grizzlies to overcome.
 
Regis later went on a 6-0 run that kicked off on junior guard Emma Sterkel's jumper with 4:17 to go in the third and ended on a jumper from junior guard Tashika Burrell with 1:43 reading on the clock. The latter basket moved RU to a 53-29 advantage.
 
More excitement came as the third quarter ended when freshman guard Morgan R. Smith beat the buzzer with a trey to give the Rangers a commanding 56-30 lead.
 
Smith commenced another 6-0 run in the fourth with a 3-pointer at the 8:45 mark, which Burrell bookended with a trey with the clock reading 7:55. Burrell's basket pushed Regis to a 62-33 lead.
 
The lead grew to as large as 30, 65-35, when Smith made a 3-pointer at the 7:09 mark of the final quarter.
 
From this point on, RU kept the Grizzlies' runs small. A pair of free throws from Adams State sophomore forward Kassie Schell trimmed the Rangers' lead slightly while bringing the contest to its final score just 22 seconds prior to the final buzzer.
 
The game looked to be going in the other direction when it started as ASU scored the game's opening four points. However, Regis answered with a 7-0 run to put it ahead of the Grizzlies. This run came to be on senior forward Jaz'Myne Snipes's layup with 6:45 remaining in the first. Burrell's go-ahead 3-pointer, 5-4, occurred with 6:06 left in the first, and the run ceased after Snipes hit a pair of free throws at the 5:20 mark of the opening quarter to carry RU to a 7-4 lead.
 
After another 7-0 run later in the quarter, the Rangers' lead became a double-digit one when Sterkel sank a 3-pointer to put Regis up by a score of 17-7 with 37 seconds to go in the first.
 
The first quarter ended with RU leading, 17-9, after Grizzlies junior guard Paiton Demps made two free throws with 29 seconds on the clock.
 
The second quarter proved to be a much closer one. Nevertheless, the Rangers led by as many as 11, 32-21, when Burrell hit a trey just 53 seconds before the intermission.
 
Adams State senior guard Zakiya Beckles scored the contest's last points of the first half and did so on a jumper with 29 seconds left in the half. Regis led at halftime, 32-23.
 
RU then emerged from halftime with a powerful 8-0 run that was started on Smith's 3-pointer just 22 seconds into the third and ended on Jacob's jumper at the 6:57 mark of that frame. Jacob's score brought the Rangers to a 40-23 advantage.
 
Game Notes: Smith led all scorers with a career-high and game-high 19 points to go along with one rebound, two assists, and a block. Burrell finished with 17 points, four rebounds, and a game-high four assists. Jacob tacked on 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and a game-high two blocks. Sterkel contributed 10 points in addition to two rebounds and three assists. Junior forward Grace O'Neill scored four points and had a game-high 11 rebounds, one assist, and a team-high two steals.
 
Regis was superior to ASU from both the paint and arc. RU made 27 of 54 (50.0 percent) in front of the arc and hit 12 of 25 (48.0 percent) behind it. In comparison, the Grizzlies had a 14-for-53 (26.4 percent) showing in the paint and a 2-for-18 (11.1 percent) performance from 3-point range.  
 
Up Next for the Rangers: The Rangers climb to a 9-13 record overall and a 7-9 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. Regis closes out its homestand when it hosts Fort Lewis (15-6, 11-5 RMAC) at Regis Field House on Saturday at 3 p.m.