Tulane University
UAB
Women Erase 22-Point Deficit To Down UAB, 86-84
Feb 6, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 6, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Green Wave guard Jami Montagnino hit a jumper with 4.8 second left in regulation as the Tulane University women's basketball team erased a 22-point deficit to defeat Conference USA foe UAB, 86-84, Monday evening at Bartow Arena.
Two days ago, the Green Wave were ahead by 22 at halftime only to fall 59-58 to UTEP in Fogelman Arena. On Monday, it was the exact opposite as Tulane found itself down by 17 at the break before outscoring UAB 49-34 in the final frame to improve to 10-9 on the year and 4-6 in league action.
"We executed at the end of the game today," Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton said." We had a great first half against UTEP and a hot second half today. The difference for us today was we were good in the final three minutes.
"This team is very young and they have to learn these lessons. I spent a lot of time with Ashley (Langford), and I made sure she knew how to run those sets we needed to run, and she was very good at the end of the game."
With the score knotted at 84-all and 26 seconds remaining on the clock, Tulane ran some time and rookie point guard Ashley Langford drew the defense to the left wing with dribble penetration before passing to a wide-open Montagnino at the top of the key. Montagnino's shot found nothing but net, and a desparation three by UAB's Carmen Guzman was off the mark.
Tulane outrebounded the Blazers 23-16 in the second half, and had just a pair of turnovers to UAB's seven following the break. A big factor in the come-from-behind effort was the Green Wave's ability to score with the clock stopped as Tulane hit 26-of-29 free throw opportunities.
Sophomore guard Nikki Luckhurst led four players in double figures with 20, including four 3-pointers, while Jennifer Sands added 16 and Montagnino and Langford had 15 each.
"We had scoring from a lot of players today, and only had two turnovers in the second half, which was huge," Stockton said. "We didn't give them many second-chance opportunities in the second half "
Tulane held a 16-15 advantage with 13:37 left to play in the first half, but a trey by Crystal McFadden sparked an 18-2 rally and the Green Wave found themselves on the wrong end of a 34-18 score a little more than five minutes later. The Blazer lead swelled to as many as 22 at 44-22 with 5:02 left to play, but Tulane outscored UAB 15-6 the rest of the half to go into the locker room down by just 13.
Tulane's hot streak at the end of the first half carried over to the second as the Green Wave continued to slice into the UAB advantage. Tulane got it down to 10 twice, and with 14:09 remaining, Sands took a perfect feed from Montagnino and layed it in to make it a 60-52 affair and force UAB to call a timeout.
Following the break in the action, Britney Jones canned her third 3-pointer of the game to shift the momentum back to the UAB bench, and the Blazers responded with a 10-5 run to push the lead back 13 at 70-57. The Green Wave, however, refused to go away quietly as Luckhurst sparked a 12-4 rally with a pair of treys to cut the lead to 74-69 at the eight-minute media timeout.
Tulane continued to fight and eventually tied the game at 78-78 on putback by Sands with 3:48 to go. Sands hit jumper from the top of the key on next possession to give the Green Wave their first lead of the second half and set up Montagnino's last-second heroics.
