Late surge is too little, too late for Pack in conference opener with Regis

By Anthony Sandstrom

Late surge is too little, too late for Pack in conference opener with Regis

DENVER, Colo. - The Pack nearly busted one out on a Regis team asleep at the wheel, trimming the Rangers' 18-point second half lead down to eight in the waning minutes of the game Friday.

But the Pack's late advance simply ran out of time as Regis held on to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference opener, 85-76.

From the outset, the Pack were simply the victim of simple basketball economics - if you shoot average from the field while your opponent shows an amazingly hot hand, you will likely lose.

Those numbers were exhibited early on, as the Pack, shooting a respectable .462 from the field in the first half, was dwarfed by a Regis output of .621 as the Rangers built a large lead, taking a 45-33 advantage into halftime.

More than Regis' tough shooting was their ability to all but silence the ThunderWolves' top two scorers, Lindsay Black and Mary Rehfeld. Black only mustered four points in the first half, part of her 12 points in the game, while Rehfeld put up a goose egg in the first half that followed her throughout, as she went 0-for-8 from the field in the game, only getting two points.

In the second half, the Rangers were running away with it, consistently holding a double-digit lead and getting as high as 18 points over the ThunderWolves. However, Pack freshman Rachel Espinoza took the team on her back in her coming out party of sorts near the end of the game, reeling off seven straight points, part of her career high and team-leading 20 points, to lead a 10-3 run. That brought the Pack within eight, albeit with only 53 seconds to play.

As a result, CSU-Pueblo was forced to foul their way out of a disadvantage and an epic comeback was to much to hope for as Regis held on for the win.

"Their post players played better than we've seen on film or in person," Pack coach Kip Drown admitted, alluding to the Ranger front court's 46 points, accounting for more than half of the entire Regis offensive total. "They came out and played real well. They took advantage of the things we gave them, and that's something that good teams do."

The ThunderWolves loss, which is their second straight, dropped them to 5-2 and was the fourth straight loss suffered in as many games to Regis. The ThunderWolves last claimed a win over the Rangers in Dec. 2003.