PHOENIX, Ariz. – Missed free throws in the fourth quarter led Arizona Christian University climb back into a game that the University of Providence was in control of. In the end, the Lady Argos hung on in by far its closest game of the year, defeating ACU 65-58.
 
"We knew it was going to get tighter in the second half because they're a really good team," Head Coach Bill Himmelberg said. "When you're on the road you can't expect anything to be given to you, and that team isn't going to lose a lot of games at home this year."
 
For  three quarters  of play, the Lady Argos looked poised for a double-digit victory, leading by 16 points at the half and by 11 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Coming off of a career-high 30 points against Benedictine University at Mesa the day before, senior guard Stephanie McDonagh was again electric in the first half. She scored 15 points in the period and was on fire from three, hitting 4-5 from behind the 3-point line.
 
The Lady Argos also shot well as a team, hitting 57 percent from the field and 54 percent from distance. There was only one place on the court UP couldn't seem to make shots from and that was the seemingly inappropriately named free-throw line. The Lady Argos entered the game shooting 82.6 percent from the charity stripe but went 2-8 from that spot in the first half.
 
That didn't seem to matter much, particularly since the team's defense was playing so well. Arizona Christian only managed 7 made field goals in the first half against the Lady Argos and turned it over 11 times.
 
"I think our defense is better than it's been in a long time," Himmelberg said. "That was really big for us today."
 
ACU chipped away at the UP lead in the third quarter, taking advantage of 8 Lady Argo turnovers to bring the gap down to 11 points by the start of the fourth quarter. Two straight made 3-point field goals for the Firestorm to start the final period then closed the lead to 5 points.
 
UP missed 5 of 9 free throws through the first nine minutes of the quarter and that allowed ACU to narrow the gap to just 3 points with 40 seconds left.
 
"In the second half, mostly in the fourth quarter, they were a lot more physical with us and it just became a little bit tougher to make baskets," Himmelberg said. "We need to get a little better at being clean with our sets and making our screens a little stronger. It was a good learning experience for us."
 
With the game down to one score for the first time since less than seven minutes into the first quarter, the Lady Argos suddenly remembered how to make free throws. UP went 6-8 from the line in the final 40 seconds to pull out the win.
 
The physical play in the second half had a significant effect on UP's offense, which is what made the free-throw shooting struggles relevant. The Lady Argos shot just 20 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes of play.
 
McDonagh wasn't immune to the second half struggles but still finished with a  team leading  23 points and only 2 of the team's 21 total turnovers.
 
Of those 21 turnovers, 5 were attributed to UP's freshman point guard Emilee Maldonado, but she made up for it in other ways, leading the team with a career-high 6 steals and 5 assists. She was also UP's  second leading  scorer with 13 points.
 
Freshman  post Parker  Esary was held in check for the second straight game but almost came away with her first career double-double. She went 3-8 from the field but finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds.
 
The game marks just the second time UP shot below 60 percent from the charity stripe. Bizarrely, that game was also played on November 4, coming in a 49-43 win over Menlo College in which the team shot just 5-11 from the free-throw line.
 
Before the game, UP had an average win margin of 33.2 points per game. The team is now 5-0 on the year.