The defense clamped down and the offense woke up.
Trailing 35-23 after shooting an abysmal 21 percent in the first half, the Big Red recommitted themselves on the defensive end and that led to a host of new opportunities that resulted in a hard-fought 57-55 victory over Allegheny College from Livingston Gymnasium.
The Big Red got a spark early in the second half when they opened play on a 9-2 run that trimmed the Gator lead down to five. Over the next six minutes of play Allegheny would keep their lead between five and seven points and many were wondering if the momentum that DU started the first half with was beginning to fade.
Senior Haley Dahlgard (Walnut Creek, Calif./Northgate) got the crowd and the momentum back on the side of the home team when she knocked down a jumper off a pass from Jessica Grzybowski (Parma, Ohio/Padua) with 9:23 to play. On the ensuing possession, Dahlgard forced a turnover at the other end and after handing the ball off to Nicole Coggins (Mesa, Ariz./Corona Del Sol), Dahlgard streaked to the other end of the court, got in position behind the 3-point line, where Coggins found her for what would be the game-tying basket with 8:53 left.
After trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, the Big Red found themselves in a new game with just under nine minutes to play. Over the next four minutes the two teams would trade baskets and the game would be tied four more times. With 4:48 to play Allegheny's Darly Ford drilled a short jumper after a steal by Britni Mohney. That tied the game at 55-55, but, unfortunately for the Gators, that would be their final points of the game.
In fact, over the final 4:48 the two teams were a combined 1 for 11 from the field. That lone field goal, which ended up being the game-winner, came on a beautifully executed backdoor pass from Kristen Meyer to Shaina Kaiser (Ostrander, Ohio/Buckeye Valley) who dropped it in for a 57-55 lead with 1:02 to play.
After the lay-up by Kaiser, Allegheny quickly inbounded the ball and tried to catch the Big Red on their heels. The defense responded when Allegheny's Lauren Donahoe attempted a quick shot that was well defended by Grzybowski down low. Kaiser secured the rebound and DU would end up running the game clock down to 15 seconds. That's when Christina Myers (Pataskala, Ohio/Watkins Memorial) attempted a layup as the shot clock was about to expire. The shot was off the mark but the ball was ruled to have gone off a Gator defender and Denison retained possession with 13 seconds left.
Now, forced to foul to get the ball back, the Gators still had one foul to give before they could send Denison to the free throw line. Those two fouls would take another five seconds off the clock and with eight seconds remaining Kaiser was sent to the line to try and ice the game.
Attempting just her second free throw of the day, Kaiser's attempt was off the mark and the Gators would have one last chance to tie or win the game. Donahoe snagged the rebound and got the ball to Mohney who thought about taking a shot until she saw Kaiser closing in, at full-extension to try for the block, Mohney though differently, passed to the top of the key where the Gators would fail to get a shot off before the final buzzer sounded.
The win was crucial for Denison in the North Coast Athletic Conference. It keeps them locked into third place at 5-3 in league play. The loss drops Allegheny's record to 6-10 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
Denison was led by Myers who scored 17 points in 20 minutes of action and was 8 of 10 from the charity stripe. Kaiser ended with nine points and ine rebounds and Dahlgard also added nine points, four rebounds and two steals.
The Gators were led by senior Emilie Simone who scored a game-high 18 points while pulling down 11 rebounds and adding three blocked shots.
Denison shot only 30 percent from the field for the game but they took 20 more shots than their opponents thanks to a 22-8 advantage on the offensive glass. Those 22 rebounds resulted in 10 second-chance points and the DU bench would go on to outscore the Allegheny bench 21-13.
This is the fourth straight win by the Big Red against the Gators, dating back to the 2007-08 season. DU will host Kenyon College on Wednesday at 8 p.m. before traveling to Wooster next Saturday (Jan. 30) for a rematch with the Fighting Scots at 2 p.m.
