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Andy Schlichting
Caley Dow draws a foul against WSC's Katie Hall in the second half.

Women's Basketball by Andy Schlichting

Women's basketball upset at RMAC Shootout

Box Score PUEBLO, Colo. - Western State held on for a 70-66 upset over top-seed Metro State on Friday at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Shootout in Pueblo. The Mountaineers will move on to the championship game on Saturday with a 16-14 record, while Metro falls to 25-3 this season.

The Mountaineers broke a 43-43 tie with 11:02 left with seven straight points after Metro State all-conference point guard Jasmine Cervantes (Johnstown, Colo./Berthoud H.S.) went down with an ankle injury on the play that tied the game.

WSC stretched its lead to eight points with 1:27 left at 61-53 when the Roadrunners began a comeback that came up just short.

Freshman Jenessa Burke (Aurora, Colo./Highlands Ranch H.S.) buried a 3-pointer from the right corner with 1:20 to play to cut the deficit to five. A layup by Candice Kohn (Midland, Texas/Midland Christian H.S.) trimmed the deficit to four on the next possession after a free throw by the Mountaineers.

Alyssa Benson (Eden Prairie, Minn./Minnetonka H.S.)'s 3-pointer with 33 seconds left cut the score to 66-63 and another triple by Burke made it a two-point game with 23 seconds to play at 68-66.

But WSC made 11-of-14 in the final 1:27, including two after Burke's final 3-pointer to seal the win for the Mountaineers.

Western State did not attempt a free throw in the first half and made 22-of-28 (.786) in the second half.

Burke led the Roadrunners with 13 points off the bench. Brandi Valencia (Moriarty, N.M./Moriarty H.S.) added 10 to go with six rebounds. Cervantes scored nine points and had eight assists, five rebounds and three steals before her injury. Her assist total came up one shy of her own Metro State RMAC Shootout school record.

For the game, the Roadrunners shot 38.7 percent after hitting half of their shots in the second half. Metro also outrebounded Western State 39-36.

The Roadrunners used a 13-3 run late in the first half to build a 3-point lead, and took a 25-24 lead into halftime after shooting just 28.1 percent from the floor. Trailing 19-12 with eight minutes left in the first, Kohn and Benson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to quickly trim the lead to one. The Roadrunners held WSC without a point for over five minutes to take a 20-19 lead with 3:09 left in the half on a layup by Cervantes.

Nikki Trujillo hit 5-of-7 from the outside to score a game-high 22 points for the Mountaineers. Brooke Pendergraft and Katie Hall each had 14.

Metro State will find out its opponent for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night during the NCAA Selection Show.
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