Women’s basketball drops a pair of games in California

By Terry Rabbitts, [email protected]

The University of Akron women’s basketball team came out on the short end of a pair of games in the San Diego Tournament in San Diego, California over the weekend.

On Friday evening, Anita Brown score 25 points and Hannah Plybon contributed 20 more but the Zips were defeated by the Northern Colorado Bears, 78-65.

Akron started the game on the right foot and held a 15-9 advantage over the Bears (3-2) after 1 period. DiAndra Gibson had five points while Alex Ricketts and Lauren Hung each added three point shots.

The Zips were outscored 49-28 in the two middle periods and found themselves down 58-43 after three periods.

Akron was able to cut the deficit to five at 68-63 with 2:46 left to play, but were held scoreless until Plybon hit a pair from the charity stripe for the final points of the game with 47 seconds remaining.

Gibson led Akron with 9 rebounds to go with her seven points and Megan Barilla dished out four assists in the game.

On Saturday, four Akron (1-4) players scored in double figures but it was not enough as the San Diego Toreros moved to 6-0 on the season defeating the Zips, 86-65.

Brown poured in 22 points, while Gibson added 14 points and 6 rebounds. Plybon and Greta Burry each contributed 10 points to the effort.

Burry and Gibson led the Zips in rebounding with six each and Barilla dished out 5 more assists.

The Toreros led 24-14 after one period, 44-31 at the intermission, and 66-50 going into the final stanza. San Diego enjoyed its largest lead of the game at 18 with 33 seconds left in the third period.

In the final period, Akron used some defensive pressure to fuel a 10-1 to reduce the deficit to seven with 7:04 to go in the game. However the Zips were only able to add five more points to their total the rest of the way.

Akron returns to action on Wednesday, Dec. 2, as they take on Rochester College at 6 p.m. in the opening game of a doubleheader with the men’s team who will face Coppin State in the night cap game.