Lady Bluejays bounce back, outlast St. Mary
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
One day of rest isn't much time to recuperate between games. Considering Tabor's scheduling, it's hard to be at full strength once Saturday rolls around.
Thanks to a 35-19 eruption by the hosting Bluejays (3-5, 9-9) in the first half Saturday night, they were able to grind out a 71-58 win over the scrappy, physical St. Mary Spires (3-5, 9-8) to snap a two-game conference slide.
"On Saturday games, the way our conference schedule works, we get all this prep time for Thursday to where we are really well rested with one day, then we play Saturday," Bluejay coach Rusty Allen said. "We have a hard time on Saturday being able to play our pressure defense."
Fortunately, Tabor did enough the first half so the Spires' 39-36 second half wasn't a factor.
The Bluejays got out of the gate in a hurry, racing to a 7-0 lead after Erica Hemmert capped off a three-point play, 1:34 into action.
Hemmert scored a game-high 22 points, six over her sixth best average, hitting 7-for-10 from the field, one three and 7-for-7 at the free throw line.
"Tonight was a really fun game," Hemmert said. "We played together really well, we passed the ball well, we rebounded the ball well, and everybody seemed to contribute."
The Spires pulled to within five twice the first half, but a basket by Jill Hein fueled eight more unanswered points that caused Tabor's lead to bulge to 21-6.
Hein chipped in 13 points, four assists, and four rebounds.
Jessica Vineyard's basket with 6:37 left in the first half gave the Bluejays their largest lead of the game, 31-13.
Scoring nine points, Vineyard's game-high nine rebounds helped Tabor out-rebound the Spires, 37-33, with the Bluejays pulling down 17 offensively.
Even with a big half time lead, Tabor couldn't escort the Spires off the premises.
Tabor had to cope with a scoring lapse and the Spires got right back in the game with a 10-4 run in the first 4:08 of the second half.
Rachelle Wertenberger's three with just over 15:00 left was the final field goal for Tabor for nearly the next 3:00.
St. Mary used a 10-0 run to erase the lead to 42-37, with 12:37 to go.
"They went on a run and got within five, but we pulled ahead," said Hemmert. "We buckled down and got tough."
Angela Kroeker supplied the Bluejays with 10 points, ending the drought with a free throw 16 seconds later.
A basket by Kroeker 57 seconds later and Tabor was back in front by double digits, 47-37.
In a game that could have been coined Kim Hankins vs. Hemmert, the two tied for game-highs in scoring.
Hankins' third of three free-throws gave the Spires one last gasp of life with 2:42 remaining, cutting the lead to 62-53.
"We couldn't stop her," said Allen of Hankins. "We made some shots in stretches, but I never felt like, defensively in the second half until late in the game when we went back to pressure, that we were able to stop them."
Fifth in the KCAC at shooting free-throws with 81 percent, Hemmert iced the game with under a minute left, making it a five-possession game for the Spires.
Hemmert turned in a solid performance at the foul line as did the Bluejays, hitting 76 percent to go along with a 43-percent outing from the floor.
The Bluejays face a tough road test tonight traveling to Wichita for a meeting with the Friends Lady Falcons at 6 p.m.
The road gets somewhat easier Saturday when Tabor travels to Salina for a meeting with winless Kansas Wesleyan with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m.
Southwestern
Leave the door open long enough, somebody's bound to slip through.
Tabor found out the hard way Jan. 15 at home against the Southwestern Lady Builders.
With another chance to knock off a top-10 team, the Lady Bluejays folded in the closing 6:00 to drop a 67-66 stinker to 10th ranked Southwestern.
Tabor seemed to have its second top-10 opponent beaten after Erica Hemmert coolly sank a pull-up jumper that made it a 66-65 game with :13 left.
But 13 seconds is an eternity in basketball and too much time for the KCAC's third leading scorer, Niki Nicholas.
Putting a game-high 22 points up against the Bluejays, no basket was bigger than hers with eight seconds left that broke Tabor's back.
Expect the Bluejays to stay sore about the one that got away the rest of the season, especially after blowing a double-digit lead the second half.
Mainly comprised of underclassmen, the Bluejays don't have the experience Southwestern does when it comes to crunch time situations, something particularly glaring to Rusty Allen.
Nobody could pull away, even after a 10-0 Builder run helped give them a 33-31 lead at the break.
Tabor bettered the Builders' scoring 12 unanswered points to take a 37-33 lead with 18:15 left.
A three by Rachelle Wertenberger at the 9:16 mark gave the Bluejays' their largest lead, 59-48.
The game started crumbling for Tabor shortly after that as the Builders doubled the Bluejays, scoring 14-7 the final 9:00.
The Bluejays got a balanced scoring onslaught with Hemmert, Angela Kroeker, and Jill Hein finishing with 16, 12, and 11, respectively.
Angela Kroeker and Donya Anderson each pulled down a game-high eight rebounds to give the Bluejays a 43-36 win in the category.
