Lady 'Jays survive Bulldog surge
Lady 'Jays survive Bulldog surge
Tabor ends year in three-way logjam for KCAC's first place
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Christmas arrived two weeks ahead of schedule for the Lady Bluejays and coach Rusty Allen.
After many hard years of having the rung break when Tabor had a chance to get to the top of the KCAC ladder, the Bluejays currently find themselves sitting atop the league.
You had to figure it only would be a matter of time before Bluejay standout Erica Hemmert would dig her way out of her early season slump.
Much to her opponent's chagrin, Hemmert has gotten back on track.
She dumped a game-high 19 points on the hosting McPherson Lady Bulldogs Saturday night in a 72-63 win for Tabor (9-4, 3-1 KCAC.)
The Bluejays end 2004 winning three straight, finishing in a three-way logjam for the top spot in the KCAC with Sterling and Friends.
Allen knew the Bulldogs would come at the Bluejays with everything they had, showing why they had yet to be beaten in conference play.
"I knew coming in that their pressure could give us some trouble," he said. "I knew how quick they were and the problem was we only had one day to practice."
Somehow, that didn't seem to matter much the way the Bluejays opened the game.
The Bulldogs' Crystal Richardson was the only player who could get anything going, furnishing McPherson 14 of its first 18 points.
With the Bluejays dominating in every aspect of the game early on, Kelly Pavlik sank a three with 11:05 left in the first half to give Tabor a 22-9 lead. Pavlik finished with 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting.
Six straight points from Hemmert in a span of 1:41 pushed the Bluejay lead to 30-14, Tabor's largest lead of the game.
But McPherson's press seemed to give the Bluejays fits in the closing 4:00, forcing Tabor to turn the ball over in transition.
That gave the Bulldogs a chance to use a 9-0 run to close the gap to 32-25 at halftime, even shooting 31 percent from the floor. McPherson overall was a chilly 32 on 23-for-72 for the game.
Scoring 15 points, Stacie Herman was about the only Bluejay unfazed by the Bulldog press, which forced Tabor into committing 21 turnovers.
"McPherson hit two really long shots and we threw the ball away against that press," said Allen. "You can have one turnover, but if you bounce back with three more solid possessions, that turnover goes away in your memory, but you can't have back-to-back turnovers."
The surge continued for the Bulldogs to start the second half, scoring five straight despite Tabor shooting 54 percent the second half and 47 on the night.
This time, Richardson wasn't a factor, though as Tabor held her to one field goal from six attempts the second half.
The two teams traded punches until Crystal Thomas knotted the game at 45 with 12:22 left.
Katie Fast triggered a 10-0 run for Tabor, breaking the tie on the Bluejays' ensuing possession.
Donya Anderson showed why she leads the KCAC rebounding, pulling down a season-high 15 to help the Bluejays outdo McPherson, 49-36. She supplied four of her seven points during the run, hitting the basket that made it a 55-45 game at the 10:10.
The Bulldogs threatened again in the final 3:00 with back-to-back threes that pulled them to 66-62 with 2:30 to go.
Finishing with eight points, Jill Hein drained a cold-blooded free throw with eight seconds left to make it three-possession game for the Bulldogs.
"Our defense completely snuffed them out the in the first 15 minutes," said Allen of Tabor getting out of the gate. "Coach (Assistant Blake) Buhrman told the girls afterward if we put a 40-minute game together like we played the first 15 minutes, we're going to be a scary team to play.
"We've had some spurts like this, but this was the longest stretch we've put together where we completely dominated the game in every respect."
