DENVER – The Regis University women's basketball team returned home for a Saturday night contest at Regis Field House, where multiple players scored points for the Rangers in their solid 77-66 win over CSU Pueblo.
 
"We know how valuable any opportunity to play is," said Regis University Head Women's Basketball Coach Molly Marrin. "We've had a ton of pauses and stops like I think a lot of people have, but I think we've had an exceptional amount so I think we've valued every practice. We've talked about valuing our time together, valuing the opportunity to play for Regis and to wear the uniform. And so, I think coming into a practice grateful has made us have good practices.
 
"So we've grown a lot, and again, I said this a few weeks ago that we have a lot of room to grow. We're still trying to find our identity. Some teams have it; they're senior-laden. Some of the teams that have beaten us. I think five out of our last seven games are regionally ranked so it's just been a brutal haul there, and I think that we've competed, and [we're] still trying to find ourselves. I think we're starting to get closer to that, and it's really exciting. It's exciting to be home, and I'm just proud of how well we play together. I think we share the ball better than we have, and we really locked in on playing team defense." 
 
How It Happened: With 49 seconds to go in the third quarter and Regis holding a commanding 65-51 lead, sophomore forward Morgan L. Smith made a layup to give RU a 67-51 advantage, which proved insurmountable for the visiting ThunderWolves.
 
CSU Pueblo struck first in the game, 2-0, with an opening-possession jumper by junior forward Aubriana Noti just 24 seconds into the game. Senior guard Tashika Burrell responded right back with a 3-pointer to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead, while marking the game's first lead change at the 9:21 mark of the opening 10 minutes.
 
Facing a 7-3 deficit, Regis erased it and then some in the form of a 7-0 run. Freshman guard Erin Fry sparked the run on a jumper with 8:11 to go in the first quarter. With the game tied at 7-7 after senior forward Grace O'Neill hit both of her free-throw attempts at the 7:44 reading, senior forward Whitney Jacob capped the run on a go-ahead trey with 7:33 remaining, bringing RU to a 10-7 lead.
 
Holding a five-point, 20-15 advantage, the Rangers tacked on two more 3-pointers to end the opening frame. Burrell drilled her trey at the 2:08 mark, while sophomore guard Morgan R. Smith fielded a timely pass from sophomore guard Sydney Daniels and sank a buzzer-beating, 3-pointer to extend the Regis lead to a 26-15 one to end the quarter. 
 
Neither team had a sizeable run throughout the second. However, Morgan L. Smith converted a pair of free throws with 8:30 left in the second, and Morgan R. Smith followed that with a trey to grow the RU advantage to 14, 31-17, at the second quarter's 8:08 reading.
 
The Rangers led by as many as 16 on two occasions in the second. Fry made a layup with just 43 seconds remaining in the first half to give Regis a 49-33 lead. Burrell then took full advantage of a personal foul in the closing seconds, sinking both of her tosses at the charity stripe to yield a 51-35 advantage for RU at the 4-second mark, which it took into the intermission. 
 
Burrell scored all 22 points in the first 20 minutes of play.
 
What happened during the second quarter was a similar story for most of the third. The Rangers put together a five-point stretch in which senior guard Emma Sterkel made a 3-pointer with 6:33 to go in the third, and this was followed by a Jacob jumper. The latter basket moved Regis to a 59-39 lead at the 6:11 mark of the third.
 
Back-to-back treys by CSUP on account of senior power forward Jazzy Hughes and sophomore shooting guard Jalen Long with 3:00 and 2:33 left in the third, respectively, cut the RU advantage to 13. Long's 3-pointer made the score in favor of the Rangers, 61-48.
 
The aforementioned layup from Morgan L. Smith came at the 49-second mark to give Regis a 67-51 advantage.
 
Despite the threatening 6-0 run from the ThunderWolves minutes earlier, Jacob ended the third with a jumper to return the RU lead back to 16, 69-53, to cease the quarter's worth of scoring at the 5-second mark.
 
CSU Pueblo later went on a 6-0 run in the fourth. This one started on Noti's layup with 7:28 remaining in regulation and stopped after Hughes' layup at the 4:50 mark of the closing quarter. Hughes' layup shrunk the Rangers' lead to 12, 71-59.
 
The game ended with Fry hitting a pair of free throws with 15 seconds to go before the final buzzer. Fry's free throws sent the game to its final result of 77-66.
 
Game Notes: Burrell scored a game-high 22 points and had four rebounds, two assists, and a share of the team-high one steal. Jacob finished with 20 points and six rebounds. Morgan L. Smith recorded eight points, a game-high 10 rebounds, two assists, and a share of the team-high one steal. O'Neill registered five points, four defensive rebounds, a team-high three assists, the game's only block, and a share of the team-high one steal. Five players had the team-high of one steal.
 
Regis outdueled CSUP in every shooting category.
 
RU ended the game with a 24-for-48 (50 percent) effort from the paint, an 11-for-23 (47.8 percent) showing from the arc, and an 18-for-23 (78.3 percent) result from the free-throw line. The ThunderWolves converted 22 of 54 (40.7 percent) from the field, eight of 18 (44.4 percent) from long range, and 14 of 18 (77.8 percent) at the charity stripe.
 
Up Next for the Rangers: The Rangers climb to a 3-6 record overall and a 3-5 record in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) play. Regis next travels to Gallogly Events Center to take on UC-Colorado Springs (2-6, 2-6 RMAC) on Monday at 3:30 p.m.