DENVER, Colo. – It was the Athena Saragoza show Friday night as the Regis University women's basketball team looked to extend their win streak to four with their game against Adams State University.
The Rangers (11-3 overall, 6-2 RMAC) came away with the 83-79 win on Friday as the junior guard put up a career-high 30 points thanks to an astonishing 67% (12-for-18) shooting performance and a third quarter team performance that put up 28 points over the Grizzlies (11-5 overall, 6-2 RMAC).
"It was a gritty, tough win against a great Adams team that's just excellent defensively," said Regis women's basketball head coach, Molly Marrin. "We turned the ball over more than we wanted to but I felt our composure through that and not hanging our heads because of it showed our toughness."
How It Happened: If Saragoza was given the ball beyond the arc, there was a literal 50% chance it was going in as the Santa Barbara native nailed five of her 10 attempts.
But Saragoza wasn't just a three-point shooter, the other half of her points came from Saragoza's ability to weave her way through a staunch Grizzlies' defense and put in seven additional buckets of her own alongside a free throw at the 0:35 mark in the fourth.
"If I could tell you how much time she spends in the gym, it's unbelievable. She's been putting in the time and so she was able to reap the benefits of her hard work and her dedication," said Marrin. "I'm super happy for her and love to see players who put in as much work as she does, do well. She played super confident, was very shot-ready, she had seven boards, too. No turnovers, three steals, she was unbelievable tonight."
With the momentum squarely in their favor in the third quarter, the Rangers earned their first double-digit lead of the night thanks to a three-point bomb from graduate student guard Josey Ryan.
Ryan wasn't finished, however, as she forced an ASU turnover from the RMAC's leading scorer, Harmanie Dominguez, and passed it to Saragoza who put up two more points in the last second of the third to go up 64-51.
"We just knew that they were getting to the basket too easily and we were asking ourselves how can we play better team basketball against a very quick team," said Marrin. "We have more size, but we needed to play off them a little bit more and just try to guard the basket better. After the third, we had 28 points and it was spurred from our defense keeping just a couple steps further away from the rim and making those shots tougher."
The Grizzlies weren't going down without a fight as the third-best offense in the conference went on a 24-11 run from 5:44 to 0:40 to wear Regis' lead down to only four points and make it 81-77.
Those four points proved to be the closest ASU would get to mounting a comeback as both teams scored two more points each for an 83-79 outcome in Regis' favor.
Alongside the third-year was senior guard Erin Fry who put up a 19 spot of her own on Friday, primarily due to a Grizzlies' defense that could not stay out of foul trouble.
Adams State had a total of 25 fouls on the night, 11 of which were drawn by Fry.
"We knew they had to pressure, so when teams pressure, you have to create space and attack it so maybe we were a little more hesitant in the first half, but in the second half Erin Fry did Erin Fry and she basically said 'I'm just going to attack that if you're going to pressure'. For her, making 15 points at the free throw line is an incredible job. We needed every one of them," said Marrin.
Game Notes:
- Regis outscored ASU in second chance points, 18-10
- Sam Deem led the Rangers in rebounds with 13
- 48 rebounds is the third-most on the season for the Rangers
Up Next: The Rangers are staying home on Saturday as they take on the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks. Tipoff is set for 3 PM.
"They're tough as well. They're going to play a lot more zone than we faced tonight so that'll be different. They primarily play zone but they're looking to travel all over the place like ASU did tonight. It'll be similar keys, taking care of the basketball and making sure that we're getting back in defensive transition and making sure we're out-rebounding them," said Marrin.
