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TOPEKA —
Conventional basketball wisdom suggests that a team would be ahead at halftime after forcing twice as many turnovers as their opponent.
The Pittsburg State women forced the Washburn Lady Blues into 12 first half turnovers but trailed 28-19 at halftime — due to shooting 22 percent from the field (1-13 from 2-point range, 7.6 percent), going scoreless for nearly 7 minutes of the first half, being outrebounded by 11 and Washburn senior Laura Kinderknecht parlaying three 3-point shots into 11 first half points.
Pitt State senior post Lauren Brown scored all 14 of her points after halftime but missed six consecutive free throws which could have cut into the Washburn lead even more during a 58-44 loss Saturday night at Lee Arena.
“We never could get anything going with our dribble-drive and we never would look at Lauren,” Pitt State head coach Lane Lord told Eddie Lomshek of KKOW. “She was standing there wide-open all game in the first half and we knew we had to get some post touches in this game. We certainly got zero in the first half and I think you saw that it was obviously a point of emphasis in the second half and Lauren did a great job.”
Brown finished with eight rebounds, three steals and one block to go along with her 14 points. She played 31 minutes on Saturday.
“We show our youth a lot during games where we do some good things and then fall asleep at times,” Lord said. “That comes with having a young team. We’re very young but I told them in the locker room, ‘What we did in the second half is what we’ve been trying to do all year and that’s getting the ball inside.’ Lauren is 6-foot-6 and you’ve got to give her a chance. I believe she was 6-for-8 in the second half and that’s impressive.”
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association leading scorer Lizzy Jeronimus added 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Gorillas and Morgan Westhoff turned three 3s into all nine of her points. Three players combined for 35 of the Gorillas’ points and the other nine were scored on 3s by Drew Roberts, Alexa Bordewick and Y’Cedria Devers.
Kinderknecht led all scorers with 15 points and Sierra Moeller added 11. LaVonda McCall played a solid all-around game — four points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and one block. Stormye Elliott had six points and 11 rebounds, Dana Elliott nine points and four assists and Tiara George seven points, nine rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.
Conventional basketball wisdom suggests that a team would be ahead at halftime after forcing twice as many turnovers as their opponent.
The Pittsburg State women forced the Washburn Lady Blues into 12 first half turnovers but trailed 28-19 at halftime — due to shooting 22 percent from the field (1-13 from 2-point range, 7.6 percent), going scoreless for nearly 7 minutes of the first half, being outrebounded by 11 and Washburn senior Laura Kinderknecht parlaying three 3-point shots into 11 first half points.
Pitt State senior post Lauren Brown scored all 14 of her points after halftime but missed six consecutive free throws which could have cut into the Washburn lead even more during a 58-44 loss Saturday night at Lee Arena.
“We never could get anything going with our dribble-drive and we never would look at Lauren,” Pitt State head coach Lane Lord told Eddie Lomshek of KKOW. “She was standing there wide-open all game in the first half and we knew we had to get some post touches in this game. We certainly got zero in the first half and I think you saw that it was obviously a point of emphasis in the second half and Lauren did a great job.”
Brown finished with eight rebounds, three steals and one block to go along with her 14 points. She played 31 minutes on Saturday.
“We show our youth a lot during games where we do some good things and then fall asleep at times,” Lord said. “That comes with having a young team. We’re very young but I told them in the locker room, ‘What we did in the second half is what we’ve been trying to do all year and that’s getting the ball inside.’ Lauren is 6-foot-6 and you’ve got to give her a chance. I believe she was 6-for-8 in the second half and that’s impressive.”
Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association leading scorer Lizzy Jeronimus added 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Gorillas and Morgan Westhoff turned three 3s into all nine of her points. Three players combined for 35 of the Gorillas’ points and the other nine were scored on 3s by Drew Roberts, Alexa Bordewick and Y’Cedria Devers.
Kinderknecht led all scorers with 15 points and Sierra Moeller added 11. LaVonda McCall played a solid all-around game — four points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and one block. Stormye Elliott had six points and 11 rebounds, Dana Elliott nine points and four assists and Tiara George seven points, nine rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal.
Washburn improved to 15-3, 9-1 in the MIAA. The Lady Blues remain on top of the 15-team conference, just ahead of nationally-ranked schools Central Missouri and Truman State.
Meanwhile, the Gorillas lost their third straight contest and dropped to 12-7, 6-5. Pitt State last defeated Washburn in Topeka on Feb. 10, 2001. The Gorillas return home for a Thursday night showdown with Truman State (16-3, 9-2) and Pitt State currently stands in a sixth-place tie in the MIAA.
The halftime entertainment for both games Saturday night featured Bruce Crevier, a five-time world record holder for spinning basketballs — his feats include 21 basketballs at one time and 22 hours, 12 minutes of endurance basketball spinning.
In other MIAA games Saturday, Central Missouri defeated Lindenwood 83-75, Emporia State defeated Northwest Missouri 72-58, Northeastern State defeated Missouri Western 73-56, Truman State defeated Southwest Baptist 64-50 and Fort Hays State defeated Missouri Southern 62-55.
Central Missouri had four scorers in double figures — BreAnna Lewis 19 points, Keuna Flax 18, Nicole Caddell 18 and Quinnecia Twine 13. Caddell added 10 rebounds for a double-double. Marissa Lehnig of Lindenwood led all scorers with 22 points.
Emporia State picked up its fifth straight win behind 20 points and nine rebounds from Rachel Hanf. Emily Barto played eight minutes for the Hornets.
Northeastern State won on the strength of its balanced scoring — six players, none scoring less than nine points, combined for all 73 (Taylor Lewis 19, Sarah Green 16, Fontana Tate 10, Taylor Collins 10, Chelsey Stricklen 9, Tosha Tyler 9). Brittany Griswold of Western led all scorers with 22 points.
Truman State, nationally-ranked for the first time in 13 seasons, was led by Allie Norton with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists and Becka McHenry with 14 points, six rebounds and one blocked shot. Jacqui Zelenka of Southwest Baptist posted a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Fort Hays handed Southern its sixth consecutive loss behind 14 points apiece from Kate Lehman and Katelyn Edwards. Lehman and Edwards also combined for six blocks (Lehman four, Edwards two). Lehman entered Saturday leading NCAA-II with 75 blocks and 4.17 blocks per game.
