A double-double by senior Nia Torru proved to be short of what the Incarnate Word women's basketball team needed in Friday's home contest against visiting Harding University, as the Cardinals lost, 66-60, in overtime to the Lady Bisons.
Torru had a game-high 22 points and 12 assists to lead UIW against Harding, but despite getting help in the form of 13 points and 7 rebounds from Jasmine Smith and 9 points and 6 rebounds by Nikki Brown, UIW (now 4-3 on the season) was unable to score when it mattered – getting held scoreless in the extra period by HU (4-4) while the visitors scored six unanswered on the Cardinals.
The Lady Bison only had one player in double figures, but got some sort of production for every player who saw the court in the game – and the team's deeper bench allowed Harding to sub in multiple players (sometimes an entire lineup) while Incarnate Word had three players play greater than 40 minutes and two more play more than 30 because of injuries.
Overall, UIW only had eight players take the floor because of injuries sustained to players early this season.
“I'm not putting that out there as an excuse,” head coach Angela Lawson said, “but sometimes when you're out there trying to get oxygen, it affects your thinking and you make mistakes.”
Brittany Bennett had seven points and seven rebounds for UIW.
Senior post Hayley Harvey saw the floor for the first time in four games, and was only able to get five minutes of time as she slowly starts to wear off the rust gathered recovering. Harvey, a returning starter from last year's squad that reached the NCAA Tournament, will try to get back to putting in long minutes as soon as possible – but will have to do it on the road.
Friday's game marked the last game that Incarnate Word will play at home in 2009, as the Cardinals' next home game won't be until January 2nd, 2010 – a Heartland Conference matchup against Newman University. Until then, UIW will be on the road for almost a month.
But, Lawson doesn't see that as a negative.
“That's how our schedule usually is every year,” she said. “Right now, we have finals week and then some games on the road around Christmas break so hopefully we can use that time to get well and get things going again before conference play starts.
“We've already been on the road a lot this season and we've handled it just fine, so I don't think it will be an issue.”
Incarnate Word's next game is on Sunday, December 13th, in Corpus Christi.
