Sports
UMBC Sports Notebook: Women's Basketball Finds Offense, Men's Basketball Still Winless
A recap of the week that was in Retriever sports, including the women's basketball team's resurgent offensive weekend and the worst defensive performance by the men's team since 2002.
Michelle Kurowski finally found her shot over the weekend at the Iona Thanksgiving Classic, and the UMBC women's basketball team was the beneficiary.
Kurowski scored 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, and the Retrievers (2-5) ended a three-game losing streak by finally finding some offense in a 77-55 win over Brown on Sunday.
The offense really got going the day before, though UMBC lost 77-72 to Toledo. In that game, Kurowski scored 24 points to begin the team's weekend offensive resurgence.
Find out what's happening in Catonsvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Prior to the weekend, the Retrievers had shot only 30.7 percent from the floor as a team. They shot 47 percent from the floor in both games, and even won the rebounding battle for the first time this season on Sunday (41-38).
Kurowski, the team's top returning scorer from 2009-10, jumped from third on the team in points per game to first with her big weekend. The junior is now averaging 13.0 points per game, just ahead of junior forward Erin Brown's 12.0 points per game.
Find out what's happening in Catonsvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Before the weekend, UMBC had not scored more than 58 points in a game. Now, they've scored more than 70 points in two consecutive contests and will have nearly a week off before hosting Bucknell at RAC Arena on Saturday, Dec. 4.
De La Rosa Hits Milestone, But Men's Basketball Still Winless
While the women's basketball team finally started scoring, the men's team had its worst defensive day in almost 10 years.
The Retrievers (0-5) lost 101-69 to Duquesne, allowing an opponent to score 100 points for the first time since losing to the University of Maryland, College Park 101-60 on Dec. 23, 2002.
Junior guard Chris De La Rosa scored his 500th career point in the game and earned 14 points to go along with five assists.
But the game belonged to the Dukes.
UMBC committed nine turnovers before the game was eight minutes old at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh, falling into an early 17-4 hole.
Duquesne hit 30 free throws and shot 30-of-54 shots from the floor (55.6 percent) and 11-of-22 from behind the arc. They scored 36 points off a UMBC season-high 20 turnovers.
After being undone by poor free throw shooting in an overtime loss to Coppin State last Tuesday, the Retrievers shot 85.7 percent from the line, but logged only 16 attempts. Duquesne attempted 43 free throws.
UMBC's next game is Tuesday, Nov. 30, versus the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
