Women's Basketball | 2/4/2012 9:52:00 PM
Box Score
Box Score
McPherson Kan. – Southwestern College and their three double-digit scorers proved to be too much offense for McPherson. Despite a late charge by the Bulldogs, including a 17 point effort by
Kt Porter (Wichita, Kan.), Southwestern hung on to win 79-69 Saturday night.
In a game filled with runs, McPherson started the second half hitting their first six shots and took the lead four minutes into the period. Southwestern quickly retaliated and went on a 19-3 run to take the lead by 17 points with nine minutes to play. MC tried to come back and made it within six but by that time, there were just 27 seconds remaining. McPherson was quick to foul but Southwestern made their free-throws to keep the lead and preserve the victory.
This was a hard fought encounter with the Lady Builders and the loss leaves McPherson with an 8-6 KCAC record and 13-11 overall. Southwestern’s victory keeps them tied for first with Friends University, who also won tonight. SC is now 18-6 overall and 12-2 in the conference.
Turnovers and free-throws proved to be the difference for McPherson. The Bulldogs turned the ball over 24 times which is the most they have since the last time they played the Builders on January 5
th. SC had 15 steals on the night and turned the ball over 21 times themselves on 10 steals by the Bulldogs.
Southwestern visited the charity stripe 13 more times than the Bulldogs including 14 trips in the first half where they missed only once. That number increased in the second but the Lady Builders still shot 78.1 percent for the contest. McPherson visited the line 19 times but was only able to put in 11 for a free-throw percentage of 58.
Scoring wasn’t a problem for the Bulldogs this time out, they put up 69 points. MC wasn’t afraid to put the ball in the air, shooting an incredible 70 times which is the third highest they have shot this season. They converted on 26 of those 70 for a 37.1 field goal percentage.
Porter led MC with her 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting.
Taylor Puttergill (Tryon, Neb.) also cracked the double-digit mark, scoring 10.
Elice Frey (Riley, Kan.) added seven to go along with her six blocked shots and eight rebounds. McPherson had 23 points from their bench with
Brittany Pittas (Lake in the Hills, Ill.),
Kaylee Cramer (Healy, Kan.) and
Ali Brewster (Milton, Kan.) contributing eight, eight, and seven respectively.
Southwestern was led by their leading scorer for the season Brett Bates who had a game-high 24 points including 12 from the free-throw line. Kaitlin Tennyson tied her season best of 17 and Zefiryn Bryan also made it into double digits with 13. Bryan also had 10 rebounds for her third double-double this year.
As a team, SC went 20-of-60 from the field, shooting 38.3 percent. They also shot 8-of24 from behind the arc, hitting their season average of 33 percent of their three-point attempts.
Next week, McPherson will stay at home as they host the other number one school in the KCAC, Friends University. That game is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. (CT) in the McPherson Sport Center. On Saturday, February 11, McPherson will travel to Kansas Wesleyan.
