Women's Basketball | 2/19/2011 6:56:49 PM
Box Score Box Score
Sterling, Kan. – Despite a lead with eight minutes the play, the McPherson College women’s basketball team dropped a defensive battle, 57-44, at Sterling College on Saturday night.
Junior forward Elice Frey recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds to earn her second double-double of the season, while senior Kristen Ozbun and freshman Tori Verdeick added nine points apiece in the effort. Ozbun hit MC’s lone 3-point basket on the night.
Sterling senior forward Brittany Gasper paced the Warriors with 22 points, including 10 from the free throw line. Ten of Gasper’s 22 points came in the final six minutes of regulation.
McPherson (6-22, 4-14 KCAC) shot 30.0 percent (18-of-60) from the field, while Sterling (24-4, 16-2 KCAC) hit 30.6 percent (19-of-62) of attempts. The Warriors outscored McPherson, 16-7, at the free throw line.
The game started with Sterling jumping out to a 5-0 lead following a Jannica Schultze jumper and Erica Herman 3-pointer. However, McPherson tightened up on the defensive end, holding the Warriors without a field goal for nearly seven minutes. During the stretch, the Bulldogs cut the deficit to one, 10-11, with 11:39 remaining in the period.
Sterling pushed their lead out to six, 19-15, with just under five minutes left, but four straight Ozbun free throws pulled MC within two. Each team added another basket, as the Warriors took a 23-21 advantage into the break.
Neither team shot better than 30 percent from the floor in the half.
The Bulldogs opened the second period with the hotter hand, as Frey runner gave MC its first lead of the night, 27-26, with 16:51 remaining. McPherson would stretch its lead out as far as five, but Sterling would not go away.
SC took back the lead with 7:54 left on Schultz’s lone 3-pointer of the night, 40-38. McPherson knotted the score at 40-40 with two Verdeick free throws, but it would be all Sterling from that point on, as the Bulldogs only scored two field goals over the final six minutes of the game.
The loss wraps up an up and down season for the Bulldogs.
