Dec. 18, 2001

Stats

OXFORD, Ohio-As all good things do, Miami University's 10-game home winning streak came to an end Tuesday night in women's basketball action, as Western Kentucky University handed Miami a difficult 73-68 defeat.

The loss, which was Miami's first in Millett Hall since last January, dropped the Red and White to 5-4 on the season, while WKU improved to 6-4.

After scoring taking an early 4-0 lead off two Kim Lancaster (Cincinnati, Ohio/Princeton) buckets, Miami surrendered seven unanswered points to the Lady Toppers and trailed by as many as seven points midway through half. A Heather Cusick (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) jumper with four minutes remaining put Miami in front for the first time in more than 11 minutes at 26-25, but WKU, which forced 12 Miami turnovers in the half, quickly regained the lead until the closing seconds of the half.

With three seconds remaining Lancaster banked in a short jumper over a WKU defender to send the RedHawks to the locker room with a 33-32 halftime advantage. Lancaster, who had been held to a season-low four points in last Saturday's defeat of Detroit, broke out of a recent funk with 18 first-half points off 9-of-14 shooting from the field. Natalie Powers led the Lady Toppers with nine first-half points.

After extending its lead to 36-32 with a Cusick 3-pointer on the first possession of the first half, Miami suffered through a 16-2 WKU run sparked by the Lady Toppers' full-court press and trailed 48-38 at the 15-minute mark. Miami steadily worked its way back into the game over the next five minutes, rallying to 53-51 by the 9:35 mark, but timely Lady Topper shooting pressed the advantage to eight points by the seven-minute mark.

Miami made a final push in the last two minutes, tallying a Cusick 3-point bucket to close to 69-66 with just over a minute to play, but Powers drained four consecutive free throws to lift the Lady Toppers to the win. The RedHawks committed 25 turnovers on the night, negating a solid shooting night from the field.

Lancaster led Miami with 24 points and nine rebounds, while Cusick added 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists and Kim Smith (Gary, Ind./West Side) notched her second consecutive double-digit scoring outing with 11 points. Powers led all scorers with 26 points.

Miami takes to the road Friday at 7 p.m. when it faces St. Francis (Pa.) in its last game prior to the Christmas Holiday.

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