TABOR: Lady Jays' magic runs out against Sterling
Sterling comes from behind to win a
72-61 heartbreaker
BY RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
One of these days the Lady Bluejays are finally going to get their due in knocking off a top-10 team.
The bad news is coach Rusty Allen will have to do it without the help of senior leader Carmen Hein, who played her final game Saturday.
In three of four previous meetings against both second-ranked Bethany and seventh-ranked Sterling, a victory was within the Bluejays' range as they pieced together three good games, but failed to win.
As a result, "so close but yet so far" has been about the only way to describe all but one of Tabor's meetings with the two KCAC heavyweights.
For the second time this year, the Bluejays pushed the Sterling Warriors to the limits, only to come up shy of pulling off an upset.
Tabor's most recent misfortune came Saturday night in the semifinal round of the KCAC tournament at Sterling as the Warriors dug down deep to grind out a 72-61 win over the Bluejays.
Saturday night's loss could arguably be the hardest pill of them all to swallow.
The Bluejays turned in one of their most productive halves of the season, shooting a blistering 52 percent from the field in taking a 35-31 lead over the Warriors at halftime.
"We played a really good first half," Allen said. "It would have been just about how you would have dreamed it. We played really well on both ends of the court."
The Warriors were hassled by Tabor's swarming defense, committing 10 turnovers in the first half that lead to 11 points for the Bluejays.
It may have been interesting to see what the outcome could have been had Tabor not run into the foul trouble it did down the stretch.
Angela Kroeker and Rachelle Wertenberger each were disqualified, and Erica Hemmert and Jill Hein finished with four fouls.
The foul trouble didn't slow Hemmert down as she finished with a team-high 15 points on four of six from the floor and seven of 11 at the free throw line.
Wertenberger pitched in 13 points along with a team-high nine rebounds, and Carmen and Casey Stucky added 10 points a piece.
Stucky too, for the second time, kept the Warriors' first team All-American Kristina Barrow in check, holding her to seven points and six rebounds.
Slowing down Barrow can often free up the other half of perhaps the league's best scoring tandem, Rachel Miller.
Miller, with the help of Angela Kroeker's foul trouble, picked up the slack by scoring a game-high 23 points with 11 of 13 coming at the foul line.
For about the first 4:00 of the second half, both teams were groping to establish production on the offensive end of the court.
Instead of getting baskets, the Bluejays were racking up turnovers, wasting four of their first five possessions away with mistakes.
Wertenberger finally scored the first basket of the second half with 16:46 to go, giving Tabor its largest lead of the game, 37-31.
Tabor started slipping away as the Warriors used a 16-2 run during a six-minute scoring lapse by the Bluejays to seize control of the game.
"We missed what were shots you can usually expect to make 50 percent of," said Allen. "We didn't make any of them during that stretch.
"Slowly, Sterling starts to get us in foul trouble and get some easy baskets. Before long, they'd caught up and taken a two-point lead and it just seemed like the momentum shifted and became more physical.
"They're (Sterling) so good, that when you once get down to them, it's really difficult to recover completely. It was really a hard fought game."
The Warriors capitalized on the Bluejays' foul trouble, taking the ball inside to draw whistles. Sterling hit 19 of 24 at the free throw line the second half and 27 for 34 for the game.
The Bluejays end the season with their best record since 1991, 18-12 overall and 12-6 in the KCAC.
Tabor should return a strong enough nucleus next season to challenge for the top three spots in the KCAC.
McPherson
One of the lasting memories the Bluejays have to have of the McPherson Bulldogs came last season in the same scenario when the Bulldogs got hot from downtown to end Tabor's season on a sour note.
For the first half of Thursday night's quarterfinal round of the KCAC tournament in Hillsboro, it looked very much again like history against the Bulldogs in postseason would repeat itself.
Shooting four of 16 from beyond the arc the first half against the Bulldogs' zone, the Bluejays opted to drive to the basket the second half that proved enough to send McPherson packing with a 72-57 pounding.
Hemmert scored a game-high 19 points, Angela Kroeker added 13 and Stucky finished with 13 points, six rebounds along with a team-high four steals. Jill Hein did an astounding job distributing the basketball, dishing out season-highs eight assists and eight rebounds to go with eight points.
A Stucky free throw with 6:08 left in the first half put the Bluejays on top, 26-24, only the second time in the game Tabor had climbed in front.
But the Bulldogs held Tabor scoreless and without a field goal the closing 6:08, and an 8-0 run left McPherson ahead at halftime, 32-26, going five for eight from behind the arc.
Jill took an assist from her cousin Carmen, draining the first of two triples to close the gap to 38-36 with just under 17:00 left in the game.
A three-point play from Stucky finally got the Bluejays over the hill at the 15:12 mark, 39-38.
The Bulldogs didn't go easily, using a 7-0 run to knot the game at 47-47 with 10:44 to go.
The Amy Gremmer field goal that tied the game was the final one the Bulldogs could get to fall for nearly 4:00.
By then, Angela Kroeker had sparked the first two of six unanswered points which allowed Tabor to take control of the game.
Getting burned by the Bulldogs' perimeter shooting the first half, the Bluejays suffocated McPherson the second half, yielding one of nine and 35 percent for the game.
Tabor outdid the Bulldogs in the field, hitting 42 percent opposed to McPherson's 37.
Tabor 61, Sterling 72
Total points: A. Kroeker 4, Rodrigues 2, C. Hein 10, Wertenberger 13, Hemmert 15, J. Hein 4, McKillip 1, Stucky 10, Townsend 2.
Rebounds: Rodrigues 1, C. Hein 1, Wertenberger 9, S. Kroeker 3, Hemmert 2, J. Hein 4, McKillip 1, Stucky 6,.
Assists: A. Kroeker 1, Rodrigues 1, C. Hein 1, Wertenberger 1, S. Kroeker 1, Hemmert 1, J. Hein 1, Stucky 2, Townsend 1.
Steals: Rodrigues 2, C. Hein 3, S.Kroeker 1, Hemmert 3, J. Hein 3, Stucky 3.
