Firebirds Suffer Season’s First Loss in Top-25 Battle vs. No. 23 Shaw

WASHINGTON, DC – The No. 20 ranked University of the District of Columbia women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season as the Firebirds were defeated by No. 23 Shaw, 81-62 in non-region play at UDC Gym Wednesday night.

UDC (6-1) was led offensively by junior guard Telisha Turner (Criminal Justice – Wilmington, DE/Harcum) sophomore forward Tatyana Calhoun (Environmental Science – Disputanta, VA/Sussex Central HS) and senior point guard Teara Shaw (Health Education – Bronx, NY/John F. Kennedy HS). Turner led the team in scoring with 18 points, Calhoun registered 17 points and a team-high six rebounds, and Shaw posted her second straight 15-point scoring effort along with team-highs of three assists and two steals.

Shaw (4-1), which led wire-to-wire, dominated the rebounding battle 52-30 and outscored the Firebirds, 50-26 in the paint. The Bears' 6-foot-4 junior center Verdine Warner had much to do with that as she put together a monster night with game-highs of 26 points and 16 rebounds. Starting point guard Kayla Jack also pitched in 13 points to go with a game-high seven assists, and reserve guard Micah Brooks added 16 points and four assists. The Bears had 20 assists as a team, compared to just six by the Firebirds.

The Firebirds missed their first nine shots and turned the ball over three times in the first five minutes as the Bears raced out to an early 9-0 lead. The cold shooting and sloppy offense continued as Shaw continued to pour it on, going up 26-6 at the 8:45 mark.

Turner, who scored all 11 of the Firebirds' points through nearly 15 minutes of play, carried UDC within 15 with a jumper at the 7:09 mark. Teara Shaw added four points in the waning minutes of the first half as UDC went into intermission trailing, 32-17. The Bears out-scored UDC 18-6 in the paint and 8-0 in second-chance points in a first half that saw the Firebirds shoot a frigid 21-percent (6-of-29) from the field and an ice-cold 1-of-9 (11-percent) from long-range.

The Firebirds' second half strategy was to feed Calhoun the ball inside. It paid off early on, as Calhoun, who had been held scoreless in the first half, converted a pair of free-throws and a layup in consecutive UDC possessions to start the half. The 4-0 run brought UDC within 11 at the 19:14 mark, but back-to-back layups by Warner (one of which was a follow after she muscled for one of her game-high seven offensive boards) put the Bears back up 15 not even one minute later.

UDC later pulled within 10 on two separate occasions, including the 42-32 deficit at the 14-minute mark following junior Denikka Brent's (Mechanical Engineering – Chesapeake, VA/Booker T. Washington HS) layup. But Shaw put the game out of reach with a 16-5 run over the next four minutes to take a commanding, 58-37 lead. The Firebirds never got any closer than 17 points the rest of the night, as they fell by a final margin of 19.

Next up, the Firebirds host East Coast Conference foe Mercy on Saturday, December 14^th at 3 p.m. UDC is tops in the ECC standings with a league record of 2-0.