Posted at 7:43 p.m. on Saturday, January 19, 2008.

The NMU women’s basketball team continued its recent trend of losing close conference games, as the team failed to hold onto an 11-point first half lead and fell to the Wayne State Warriors by a score of 64-56.

“This is one that got away from us and you can’t let that happen at home,” head coach Troy Mattson said. “We had the ball in under the basket, had mid-range jumpers, open three’s and we just weren’t making any shots.”

The ‘Cats (7-9 overall, 2-6 GLIAC) were led in scoring by senior Allison Carroll, who had 24 points and six rebounds. Sophomore Natalie Laroque added 12 points coming off of the bench, while junior Kelsey Deacon was 0-8 for three pointers in the game, but recorded 10 points and nine rebounds.

The Warriors (7-8 overall, 3-5 GLIAC) were led by Chastidy Miller, who scored a game-high 27 points and totaled nine rebounds. Jasmine McCall added 13 points for Wayne State.

The Wildcats came out of the gate strong, amassing a 19-8 lead with 9:30 left in the first half. The ‘Cats finished the half holding a six point lead over the visitors.

“I thought we had a good first half, despite the fact that we weren’t making shots,” Mattson said.

The Warriors adjusted their game plan and came out in the second half playing a zone defense, which stymied the Wildcat shooters, who only managed to shoot 12.5 percent from beyond the arc.

“We played well against them when they were playing man-to-man,” Mattson said. “When they switched to a zone and we weren’t hitting shots, we had trouble. If you make a few of those shots you might get them out of a zone.”

The ‘Cats turned the ball over 14 times in the game, with nine turnovers coming in the second half.

“We can get a lot of pressure out of our zone, which you don’t usually expect,” Wayne State head coach Gloria Bradley said. “When we play a zone we go after the ball the same as when we play man-to-man.”

The Warriors made the most of NMU’s mistakes in the second half, scoring 13 points off of turnovers as they outscored the ‘Cats 43-29 in the final 20 minutes.

“It was a rough game,” NMU sophomore Angie Leckson said. “We should have pulled this one out.”

Tomorrow NMU faces Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) foe Hillsdale College at 2 p.m. in the Berry Events Center. Hillsdale (12-3 overall, 5-2 GLIAC), the current GLIAC south division leader, comes into tomorrow’s game following a tough loss to Michigan Tech.

“We’re not down and out,” Mattson said “We’ll just need to come back and keep fighting.”