(Box Score) Goshen, IN — Somebody failed to get the memo to the Indiana Tech women’s basketball program:
Don’t play in Goshen’s home opener.
Goshen (1-1, 0-0) ran its streak of home-opening wins to 10 Thursday night against Tech, dealing the Warriors a 66-50 defeat behind an impressive first-half performance. The Leafs used multiple defenses to hold Indiana Tech to just a six of 23 first-half performance from the floor (26.1 percent), cruising to a 32-17 lead at halftime and never looking back.
The win was especially pleasing to head coach Steve Wiktorowski, who watched his team struggle mightily in its season-opening loss at Trinity Christian College just two days prior (click here for related article).
“I thought we overcame our first night road jitters from Tuesday with much better team play on both ends tonight,” Wiktorowski said. “Indiana Tech is a young team and we wanted to throw a lot of different defensive looks at them, both half court and full, and I thought we did a good job for the most part of maintaining our focus whenever we changed things up. I thought we did a good job of getting some points off our defense with a higher percentage of points off turnovers than we had Tuesday. I thought our guards set the tone for our defense and our posts did a good job of rebounding with better help in that department from our small people than before.”
Goshen would eventually collected 24 points off of 29 Indiana Tech turnovers, capitalizing on 15 first-half miscues in leading to the 15-point halftime lead. A layup from freshman Cassie Greives opened the scoring just 46 seconds into the action, and Goshen would never trail. A 14 to two run over a six minute stretch helped turn an 8-6 lead into a 22-8 advantage with 6:11 to play in the first half, while a three pointer from sophomore Kimmie Hummer helped push the difference to 32-17 with just 38 seconds remaining in the period.
Wiktorowski’s team would push its lead to a game-high 25 points just five and a half minutes into the second half, as three consecutive long balls from sophomore Ashley Hummer keyed a 13 to nothing run. Indiana Tech would slowly crawl back into things, however, as the Leafs’ lead shrank to just 56-45 with 5:54 remaining. Back to back layups from senior Katie Sowers and Kimmie Hummer thwarted any notion of a comeback, however, as Goshen would lead by no fewer than 15 points the remainder of the way.
“We let up some in our intensity the second half after a strong first half and allowed them to make a little run at us which we need to avoid in the future so we can put teams away when we have the chance,” Wiktorowski said. “But (Indiana Tech head coach) Bonnie Bonelli is an old friend of mine and she is doing a nice job developing that young team and they improved the second half.”
The Leafs were paced by three double-figure scorers on the night, led by Ashley Hummer’s 18 points on a six of nine effort from the field, including a four for six performance from deep. Sowers provided 16 points and seven boards, while Kimmie Hummer scored 14 to go with five boards and a team-best four assists. Greives finished with a team-leading nine rebounds.
“(Junior) Krystal Duensing didn't have her outside shot going tonight but she played a lot of minutes and ran the team well,” Wiktorowski said. “The Hummer twins probably played their best game ever here together on both ends and it was really good to see Ashley look for her shot with confidence. Katie Sowers continued her outstanding second-half play from Tuesday with a strong overall game, especially considering she picked up two quick fouls and sat early. (Freshman) Erica Emanuel gave us some really good first half minutes on the defensive end. Cassie Greives and (junior) Kendra Fights played with strength underneath and were much better in helping support the guards on defense, something we really emphasized going into the game. Now it is important that we have a better road effort on Saturday than we had on Tuesday as Aquinas is (usually) a top 20 ranked team who always plays well at home.”
Goshen will travel to Aquinas on Saturday for its second road contest of the young season. Game time is set for 1 p.m. |
Sophomore Ashley Hummer