Ehlen finds UT women's offense offensive

Toledo guard Crystal Young beats Dayton's Ashley Armstrong down the court. Young led UT with 13 points and five assists.

A deadly combination of poor offensive execution and a lack of rebounding produced a second consecutive loss for the University of Toledo women last night at Savage Hall.

The Rockets led Dayton 29-25 at the half, but were then outrebounded 22-7 and shot just 31 percent from the floor in the second half as the Flyers walked away with a 62-50 win.

"We can't score," an exasperated Toledo coach Mark Ehlen said after the game. "In two games in a row, our execution is just unbelievably bad. You can't win if you can't make two passes. It was a total breakdown in the second half."

Toledo (1-2) was looking to rebound from a 67-28 loss to Marquette on Wednesday.

In the first half yesterday, Toledo held Dayton to just 33 percent shooting from the floor and outrebounded the Flyers 22-20 to take a 29-25 lead.

"Coming out of the thing at Marquette, I was fairly pleased initially," Ehlen said. "But it just seemed to get worse as the game went on."

The Flyers pulled away with an 8-0 run midway through the second half. The Rockets finally ended a 6:30 scoring drought with Crystal Young's layup on a fast break.

"We did not come out with great intensity [in the second half]," said Young, who finished with a team-high and career-high 13 points.

For the second straight game, sophomore forward Danielle Bishop failed to score. Bishop, who scored 23 points in the season opener, was 0-of-7 from the field.

Senior center Karin Hoogendam was 5-for-13 from the field and finished with 12 points.

"No one stepped up and ran the offense," Ehlen said.

The Flyers used a full-court press for the majority of the game, but Ehlen said it didn't affect his team too much. He said the offense just didn't get set once the press was beaten.

Young said her team did not match Dayton's aggressiveness in the second half: "They picked up the intensity. They seemed to want it more than us."

Dayton's Terri Ramsey opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Flyers a two-point lead and they would never trail again.

"You don't let an opponent come into your arena and play harder than you do," Ehlen said. "We seemed to be on our heels all second half."

Katie Butler (Liberty-Benton High School) and Cara Wright each had a career-high 15 points apiece for the Flyers (3-1).

NOTES: UT freshman Diana Reindl will miss the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL in practice on Nov. 11. ... Dayton assistant coach Greg Williams was filling in for head coach Jim Jabir, who is taking a medical leave of absence due to a heart condition. Jabir coached the Detroit Shock in 2001-02.

Contact Mark Monroe at: mmonroe@theblade.com or 419-724-6110.