Lady Bluejays fail tough test at Ottawa
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Heading into one the toughest parts of their schedule, Lady Bluejay coach Rusty Allen believed his team's fate Saturday against unbeaten host Ottawa would rest on three things — whether the Bluejays could take care of the basketball, rebounding, and how Tabor's defense handled the Lady Braves three-guard backcourt.
Allen was not pleased with the answer.
Two-thirds of the Braves' guard tandem of Gina Wheat and Amber Lannan lit Tabor up for a combined 37 points as Ottawa (6-0, 13-3) dismantled the Bluejays (2-4, 8-8,) 68-48.
Wheat is no stranger to the Bluejays' Hillsboro trio of the Kroeker sisters, Angela and Shannon, and Jill Hein.
Hillsboro faced Wheat and Northern Heights on many occasions during the trio's high school careers.
Wheat returned to haunt the Bluejays, scoring a game-high 20 points and pulling down 10 rebounds while holding Tabor's leading scorer, Erica Hemmert, to a mere five points.
The game started out badly for the Bluejays even though Rachelle Wertenberger canned a basket to give Tabor a brief 2-0 lead 1:15 into the game.
Wertenberger scored a team-high 12 points, draining a pair of threes.
Things quickly went from bad to worse with Wheat scoring the Braves' first five points on a three and a fast break off a steal.
Tabor was in severe trouble after Ottawa used a 16-2 run to take control with a 16-4 lead.
The Bluejays suffered through a frigid first half, shooting a cool 30 percent from the floor and missing all four three-point attempts.
Ottawa knocked down 50 percent of its shots the first half, taking a commanding 38-22 lead at half-time.
The Bluejays gave chase the second half with Ottawa sputtering offensively at the start.
Tabor whittled the lead to seven twice before the game came unraveled.
The Braves outscored the Bluejays 20-3 en route to taking a 60-36 lead with 7:00 left in the game.
Each team struggled with 19 turnovers.
Ottawa out-rebounded the Bluejays 42-35, with Wheat bringing in 10.
Angela Kroeker led the Bluejays with five rebounds, three coming on the offensive end.
The Bluejays struggled from downtown, hitting just two of 11 and 10-for-16 at the foul line.
Field goal shooting wasn't much better with Tabor hitting a season-low 31 percent.
The road doesn't get any smoother as Tabor hosts Southwestern at 6 p.m. today and St. Mary at 5 p.m. Saturday.
McPherson
The Bluejays went into Saturday's match-up with plenty of confidence, defeating the McPherson Lady Bulldogs Jan. 8 in Hillsboro, 72-57.
Tabor's problems began right away with taking care of the ball as the Bulldogs raced to a quick 6-2 lead after the Bluejays managed just two points in the game's first 3:30.
Scoring a game-high 18 points to go along with seven rebounds, Rachelle Wertenberger's three capped a 5-0 run that put Tabor ahead 7-6.
The two teams took turns exchanging the lead 10 times before Wertenberger scored five points to send Tabor to the locker room at half-time, up 30-27.
For the game, the Bluejays committed 21 turnovers while forcing McPherson into 31 that led to 26 Bluejay points.
The Bluejays used a balanced scoring attack from Wertenberger, Erica Hemmert's 12, Trixsi Odom's 10, and LaTasha Townsend's seven to pull away down the stretch.
Tabor secured the win the closing 3:00 by hitting nine of 10 at the free throw line for 79 percent in the second half.
