Lady Bluejays slow USAO, 63-50 years ago
As the Lady Bluejays' leading scorer, Erica Hemmert is never an unwise choice for opponents to hold down.
But make sure you have somebody covering Jill Hein thoroughly, though, too.
Hein was somebody the University of Science and Arts (Okla.) should have paid closer attention to Saturday afternoon in Hillsboro.
She scored a game-high 19 points, 11 in the first half, on 5-for-7 from long range to lead the Bluejays (5-2) to their fifth straight win, 63-50.
"What's going on is teams are putting their defensive emphasis on Erica so that gives other people a lot of space," said Bluejay coach Rusty Allen. "When you give Jill space, you're going to have trouble.
"We were fortunate to be able to play this game at home. It was a big win for us. They're a very physical team. "
Despite shooting 30 percent from the floor, Hemmert still managed 12 points with 2-of-4 coming from downtown and a perfect 4-for-4 at the foul line.
Opening the season winning their first five games, the Lady Drovers can put up a lot of points in a big hurry.
The trouble for both teams though, was finding the basket early on.
Midway through the first half, Tabor was clinging to a 9-5 lead.
Staci Herman put the Bluejays on top, 6-5 at the 13:42 mark and Tabor never looked back.
Hitting 23 percent from the floor the first half, 32 for the game, the Drovers would have been lucky to hit the broad side of a barn.
They went better than 5:00 without scoring, but the Bluejays weren't much hotter, shooting 36 percent the first half.
"They just shot poorly," Allen said of the Drovers' frigid shooting. "I don't think we guarded that well. They were just missing shots."
One of Hein's three first-half triples gave Tabor a 14-9 lead before the Drovers hit another scoring lapse, this one lasting longer than 3:30.
A basket by Hein with just over 2:00 left in the first half pushed the Bluejay lead as far as 11, 24-13.
Maybe the best thing that happened for USAO the first half was ending on a 5-2 run that shriveled Tabor's lead to 26-18 at the break.
Neither team's shooting warmed up much the second half with USAO.
Tabor scored the first four points as USAO went 3:05 without a basket.
The Drovers cut the Bluejay lead to single digits four times with Tabor leading by as many as 17.
Scoring a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, Donya Anderson's free throw with :40 left in the game gave Tabor its largest lead, 61-44.
While the Bluejays thrived from long range, hitting 58 percent on the night, the Drovers starved connecting for a modest 22 percent.
The Bluejays got a final tune-up for the KCAC Tuesday night when they took on the hosting Fort Hays State Lady Tigers.
Tabor opens conference play tonight in Winfield against Southwestern before hosting Friends Saturday at 5 p.m
