Wildcats' Big Sky woes continue

Fouls, poor shooting, and turnovers kept the Weber State women's basketball team from their second Big Sky Conference win as the Northern Colorado Bears mauled the Wildcats 68-56 at the Dee Events Center on Saturday afternoon.

"I thought our team never quit," coach Carla Taylor said. "Down the stretch though, they made buckets and we didn't."

Sophomore forward Amanda Hughes' team-leading 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench led scoring for WSU.

Weber State couldn't get a shot to drop in the first half sinking just 3-of-27 from the field (11.1 percent) and shot a dismal 0-7 from behind the 3-point line.

"I'm not quite sure I've seen a first half like that in a while," Taylor said.

After a tough first half, sophomore guard Megan Patterson came around in the second and finished the night with 10 points while Mikell Woodfield logged her second-straight double digit game with 12.

Northern Colorado held WSU team scoring leader Caitlin Anderson to just eight points and six rebounds before she fouled out with eight minutes in the second half.

"I personally let the refs get in my head and that was a big mistake on my part," Anderson said.

Foul trouble haunted the 'Cats again when Hughes also hit the threshhold with 2:39 remaining.

Led by forward Lauren Oosdyke's game-high 20 points, Northern Colorado had five players in double digits and dominated down-low, outscoring Weber State 34-24 in the paint. The Bears bench contributed 26 points led by Victoria Timm and Kim Lockridge's 12 apiece.

Nursing a 19.5 turnover-per-game average, Weber State made matters worse by coughing up the ball 22 times during the evening, giving up 23 points in the process.

The Wildcats open up a four-game road trip at Northern Colorado on Saturday, Jan. 29 before heading to Montana on Feb. 3.

Team Sky rule in Adelaide

Ben Swift and Greg Henderson wrapped up the Tour Down Under in perfect style by sealing a remarkable one-two triumph in Adelaide.

The duo were catapulted into contention by a near perfect lead-out display on the final laps of the city centre circuit and romped home to earn a repeat of last year's memorable success.

Matt Goss rounded off the podium in third position but that wasn't enough to wrestle the overall victory from Cameron Meyer.

The day had not begun ideally for Team Sky as Simon Gerrans was forced to retire early on, but the action was brisk from the off and Michael Matthews moved into contention for the general classification when he pipped Goss on the opening sprint of the day.

Goss failed to secure any bonus seconds at all on the second intermediate sprint after Graeme Brown beat Jos Van Leijin and Allan Davis to the line, which meant HTC-Highroad needed to go all out for the stage win.

The American squad had been covering all the early breaks, and also had to work hard to nullify a late seven-man move which was headed by Stuart O'Grady and Nicki Sorensen.

That ultimately worked to Team Sky's advantage, who gradually moved to the front of the bunch and then peeled off one-by-one in textbook style to gift Swift and Henderson an outstanding victory.

That performance also lifted Swift to third in the overall standings, although Goss's third-placed finish on the day left him two seconds adrift of Meyer in the battle for the ochre jersey. Goss did top the sprint classification however, with Luke Roberts scooping the King of the Mountains crown.

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