Mountain Lions come up short at home

COLORADO SPRINGS - The University of Colorado Colorado Springs could not contain a red-hot Erica Hicks and her 27 points as the Mountain Lions fell to the Colorado State-Pueblo Thunderwolves 66-60 Saturday night at the Gallogly Events Center.

Behind Hicks, who could do no wrong in the first-half, the Thunderwolves held a 29-25 advantage at the break.

Hicks lead all scorers at halftime with 13 points on perfect 5-5 shooting including 3-3 from behind the arc. Abby Kirchoff managed eight points at the break for the Mountain Lions.

The second-half looked like a replay of the first-half at times as Hicks continued to bombard UCCS with her 3-point shooting going 3-4 in the second-half for a combined 6-7 on 3-pointers on the night.

As a team, CSU-Pueblo went 8-20 from 3-point territory.

Like always the gritty Mountain Lions refused to go away down the stretch closing what was as much as a seven point gap to a one point gap with 2:09 remaining on a Sammy Gentile layup.

 With the score then 58-57 in CSU-Pueblo's favor, the Mountain Lions would not score again except for a desperation 3-pointer by Kirchoff in the games closing seconds.

Leading all scorers was Hicks (27) but she received help from her teammates Kendall Babler (10) and Laurel Kearsley (8).

Kearsley also lead all players with 12 rebounds.

UCCS (11-11, 6-10 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) received good games from Kirchoff lead the way with 14 points while Gentile added 13 of her own.