Women's Basketball | 1/16/2019 9:45:00 PM
Box Score Hillsboro, Kan. – After snapping a five game skid with a win over the Avila University Eagles on Monday night, the McPherson College women's basketball team made the short trip east over to Hillsboro, Kansas, to take on the Tabor College Bluejays. The Bluejays are currently 2
nd in the KCAC standings, and were coming off a huge win on Monday, handing the undefeated Sterling College Warriors, their first loss of the season.
The Bluejays continued their hot play, shooting a torrid 49% from the floor and 42% from beyond the three point arc, defeating the Bulldogs 75-59. The Bulldogs hung with the Bluejays early in the first quarter, leading the home team 9-8 at the midway point of the period. From there, things started going south for the Mac ladies. The Bluejays started knocking down three's and closed out the 1
st quarter on a 16-3 run to take a 24-12 lead into the second 10 minutes of action.
In the second quarter, the gap continued to widen, with the Bluejays leading by as many as 26 at one point. Over the final three minutes and change, the Bulldogs chipped away at the deficit, and heading into the intermission, had trimmed the lead to 18, 42-24.
Out of the locker room, the Bluejays began to extend the lead again. The lead ballooned out to 26 (52-26), again with three minutes gone in the 3
rd quarter. However, the Bulldogs went on another run, and five and a half minutes later, had trimmed the lead back down to 12, 55-43, with a minute 29 remaining in the period. Unfortunately the comeback stalled, and over the final 89 seconds of the period, the Bluejays scored the final 8 points to lead 63-43 heading into the final quarter.
The Bluejay lead hovered between 20 and 24 points for the bulk of the final period. Late in the quarter with the benches empty, the Bulldogs went on a run and scored the games' final six points, to cut the lead to 16, 75-59.
The Bulldogs were led in the scoring column by
Brittany Roberts (So. Mansfield, Texas), who recorded her 8
th double double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds. The only other Bulldog in double figures was
Maison Moseley (Fr. Woodward, Okla.), who came off the bench to score 10.
Bulldog head coach,
Josh Nichols, commented on the loss saying, "Got to give Tabor credit they shot the heck out of it tonight. I thought defensively we were a little sluggish and then we panicked. Thought we were out of position on defense to many time giving them open looks." Nichols added, "I liked the way we fought back in the second half, but we just didn't have enough in the tank to make that big run we needed."
With the loss, the Bulldogs fall to 7-13 overall and 3-11 in the KCAC. The ladies will be back at the friendly confines of the Sport Center on Saturday when they host the Kansas Wesleyan University Coyotes. Saturday's tip-off is slated for 5:00 pm.
MC (59) – Roberts (16), Moseley (10), DeLuca (8), Hurst (5), Raimondi (5), Harlow (4), Tims (4), Osborn (3), Gillen (3), Holt (1).
