Sunday, March 19, 2000
UC women lose in NIT despite Slaise's 38
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer contributor
![[img]](/bearcats/img/photos/2000/03/031900slaise_150x138.jpg)
Madinah Slaise
(Tony Jones photo)
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Madinah Slaise wondered how she would feel when her University of Cincinnati career ended. Unfortunately for Slaise, she found out Saturday.
The Bearcats surrendered a 14-point lead and fell to Michigan State 88-83 in the second round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament at Shoemaker Center.
MSU will play Wisconsin or DePaul in the third round. The Badgers and Blue Demons play today in Madison, Wis.
Slaise, a senior guard, at least made her final game memorable. She scored a career high 38 points and finished with 1,849 points, second in school history.
“That wasn't my goal, to move up the scoring ranks,” she said. “Maybe in a week or so I can reflect on that. Right now I'm depressed that we lost.”
Seniors Maxann Reese and Kristen Rasmussen led MSU with 29 and 22 points, respectively. Rasmussen added eight rebounds and six assists.
“Cincinnati played a heck of a game,” Michigan State coach Karen Langeland said. “I loved their defense. We feel very fortunate to leave with a win.”
UC coach Laurie Pirtle liked the Spartan defense, which held the Bearcats to 44.4 percent from the field and 4-of-15 from 3-point range.
“I think there was an issue of us not getting scoring elsewhere (besides Slaise),” Pirtle said. “They were tall, and they were guarding us well.”
Michigan State improved to 19-12. Saturday was also the Spartans' second straight win after four losses to close the regular season.
For the first 10 minutes, it seemed UC would advance easily. The Bearcats took a 27-13 lead.
When the Bearcats wanted to get the ball inside the lane, they usually did. On the way to a 14-6 lead in the first five minutes, sophomore Laura Wilder scored six points inside 10 feet — an impressive feat, since Michigan State starts a 6-5, 6-4, 6-3 front line.
MSU's Langebenched the entire starting five four minutes into the game.
“I felt like I was a kid that was grounded,” Reese said. “We didn't complain. We didn't do our chores. I think that helped.”
Rasmussen scored 11 straight on the way to 14 for the half, and Reese led the Spartans with 16. The result: a 48-47 Spartan lead with 40 seconds left in the half.
Slaise's seven points in the first three minutes of the second half gave UC a 56-52 advantage. It was the eighth time she has scored at least 25 in her last nine games.
The problem for UC was that, much of the time, Slaise was about the only Bearcat scoring.
After Tish Perry's free throw moved UC to within three at 81-78 with 2:12 to go in the game, Rasmussen and Reese each scored to make it an 85-78 game with 43.3 seconds remaining.
Pirtle expects people have not seen the last of Slaise.
“Madinah's a great, great player,” she said. “You're going to see her in the summer (in the WNBA).”
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![[img]](/bearcats/img/photos/2000/03/031900slaise.jpg)