(Box
Score) Indianapolis, IN — A snowy trip southward may have ended in a 50-71 loss at Mid-Central Conference foe Marian College Saturday afternoon, but opportunities still lurk for the Goshen College women’s basketball team.
A 74-54 Grace College loss to Huntington University gave Goshen (6-24, 1-15) its first trip to the MCC Tournament in two years, as both the Lancers and the Leafs finished with one league win apiece.
After Goshen and Grace split the season series — each team won on their home court — the MCC’s tie-breaking procedures were utilized, eventually coming down to point-spread. Goshen’s seven-point win over Grace on Feb. 7 (click here for related article) was greater than the Lancers’ 71-68 overtime win in Winona Lake on Jan. 6 (click here for article), punching Goshen’s ticket to post-season play.
And while the Leafs' reward is a trip to MCC Champ and nationally top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University on Tuesday evening, it is just another opportunity for the Leafs’ youthful squad to envelop according to head coach Steve Wiktorowski.
“One of the goals of our very young and inexperienced team this year was to qualify for the conference tournament, which we have,” Wiktorowski said Saturday evening. “At times this year the top three teams in our conference have been ranked first, third and fourth nationally. So, the level of competition in our conference may well be the best in the country. While we haven't won many games, I have felt we have been by and large competitive and shown great improvement for a team playing mainly freshmen and sophomores, and with just one junior and senior on the roster. We obviously will have our work cut out for us against Wesleyan, but we are just going to go play hard and see what happens in another valuable learning experience for our youthful club.”
Goshen’s efforts at Marian on Saturday were admirable, if not enough for the squad’s second MCC win of the year. An early 9-2 lead from the Knights put Wiktorowski’s squad behind early, but Goshen would not fade. The Leafs turned an 18-10 deficit into an 18-15 difference behind a pair of buckets from freshman Ashley Hummer and a free throw from sophomore Kendra Fights with 3:24 to play in the period, while a pair of free throws from junior Katie Sowers made it a 24-21 Marian lead with 1:21 remaining.
Marian responded with a three pointer on its next possession, however, eventually providing the difference in the first half with a 29-23 lead at the intermission.
An 11 to four Knights’ run to open the second half of play put Wiktorowski’s team behind by a 40-27 disparity, and Goshen would not get closer than eight points for the remainder of the contest. The Leafs’ final push came at the 10:20 mark, when a driving basket from freshman Kimmier Hummer cut the Marian lead to just 46-37. The Knights responded with a six to nothing run, however, reclaiming a 15-point lead and cruising the rest of the way. Goshen clawed back to a 52-42 difference at the 6:02 mark, but another run by Marian — this one a 10 to nothing spurt — put Wiktorowski’s team back 20 points with 3:04 on the game clock.
“It was kind of the same story as the past couple games in that we played with a lot of heart but struggled to produce points at a consistent rate,” Wiktorowski said. “Our zone defense was fairly effective the first half and we were able to hang around. The second half they knocked down enough outside shots to begin to make our defense spread out and that opened it up more for their big posts to work inside. On the other end we probably got better shots than the first half, but missed a lot of close in shots and could never make a real serious run at them when we pressed them. But it was a very physical game and I thought we made them work hard to get the win at home.”
Sowers led the pace for Goshen, scoring 13 points on a four for seven shooting effort while grabbing five rebounds. Ashley Hummer added 10 points and three boards, despite hyper-extending her left elbow late in the contest. Fights and freshman Chloe VanDenBrink each added nine points, with Fights grabbing seven boards and VanDenBrink eight.
“Sowers clearly had her best offensive game of the season and we hope this gives her some confidence that she can be more of an offensive contributor for us in the future,” Wiktorowski said. “Ashley Hummer also played well, but was injured in the second half and may be doubtful for the conference tournament. Fights and VanDenBrink battled hard on both ends and were major contributors to our strong rebounding advantage against a very good rebounding team. We got to the free throw line pretty well and shot a little better than we have lately.”
Goshen College athletic trainers said that Hummer should be available for Tuesday night’s contest, but will most likely be a game-time decision. Goshen heads to Indiana Wesleyan’s Luckey Gymnasium — a venue where the Wildcats have not lost in the last two seasons — Tuesday evening for a 7 p.m. tip-off.
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Junior Katie Sowers