Harris leads Kent State by UT women

1/18/2004

KENT, Ohio - Heather Harris hit 6 of 8 shots from beyond the arc, including 4 of 5 in the first half, on her way to 22 points as she led Kent State to a 69-56 Mid-American Conference women s basketball victory yesterday over the University of Toledo.

Sophomore Leah Gonnella came off the bench to pace the Rockets (7-8, 3-1) with a career-high 16 points and Julie Hillis added 10.

The Flashes (9-5, 2-1) also got 13 points and 10 assists from Malika Willoughby and 11 points and 15 rebounds from Andrea Csaszar.

Lindsay Shearer grabbed 12 rebounds for Kent, which outrebounded Toledo 42-37. Danielle Bishop led the Rockets with 10 boards.

Kent led throughout, but the Rockets rallied to pull within 54-52 on a trey by Gonnella. But Harris countered that with one of her treys, and Willoughby made a steal and layup to push Kent s lead to 59-52 and Toledo never threatened again.

“Heather [Harris] played a great game and Willoughby really hit some big shots off the dribble at key times,” Toledo coach Mark Ehlen said.

“Every time we need a stop, it seemed like one of those two made a shot.”

Led by Harris 8-for-11 shooting day, the Flashes shot 44.3 percent while Toledo hit just 32.8 percent of its shots.

With Toledo firing 31 times from beyond the arc (making eight) and Kent going 8-for-14 from long distance, there weren t many trips to the foul line. The Rockets hit 4 of 5, Kent 7 of 9.