Dec. 6, 2002
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Austin Peay rode its three-headed monster of Brooke Armistead, Paige Smith and Gerlonda Hardin to a 70-62 win over UMKC in the first game of the 2002 Unilever Tiger Classic, held Friday night at the Hearnes Center.
Austin Peay (3-1) will play Saturday against the winner of the 7 p.m. Missouri-McNeese State game, while the Kangaroos (1-4) will face the loser of those teams. Missouri plays at 7 p.m. on Saturday regardless of Friday's results.
Armistead, who had just two points through the first 14 minutes, finished with a game-high 25 points. Smith had 22 on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, and Hardin finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds. The three accounted for all but two of the Lady Govs' points. Alicia Watson scored the other bucket on a fast-break layup with 33 seconds left in the first half.
Katie Houlehan led UMKC with 20 points, while Kristin Kenton and Randi Meissner each added 11.
UMKC staked itself to a 13-5 lead on the strength of eight early points from Meissner. The Kangaroos boosted their lead to 21-10 on a Meissner jumper with 9 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first half, then UMKC went on a 14-2 run in the middle of the half to extend its lead to 29-12 with 6:30 remaining.
APSU made its own run to end the first half on the strength of its long-distance shooting. Brooke Armistead, who came into the game with a 21.7 points-per-game average, went off for 11 during the Lady Govs' 24-5 run. That gave Austin Peay its first lead of the game at 36-34; UMKC added a Casey Ellis bucket to tie the score at 36-all at the break. For the game, Austin Peay canned eight 3-pointers.
Paige Smith, who had three 3-pointers and 11 points in the first half, came out firing in the second by canning three straight treys to give APSU a 49-42 lead with just over 15 minutes left in the game.