Tabor women stay close in KCAC race
By RYAN RICHTER
Sports writer
Lady Bluejays coach Rusty Allen knew Saturday night that a win for his team was mandatory if Tabor is going to stay in the thick of the KCAC race.
After crumbling two days earlier in the closing seconds in a 62-60 heartbreaker against Southwestern, the last thing the Bluejays could afford was to stumble against the Friends Lady Falcons in Hillsboro.
The Bluejays (6-4, 1-1 KCAC) had to overcome some early-game jitters and a stingy Falcon defense, but they were able to get the job done with a 61-51 win.
"If we're going to stay in the conference race, it was pretty much a must-win game," Allen said of Saturday's game. "You just can't go down 0-2 in this conference and really have a very good feeling about chances to stay in the race for the championship. You just can't do it."
Somehow the Bluejays need to figure out how to stay out of the icebox in the first half.
In three out of the last four games, Tabor's opened the first half shooting under 30 percent from the floor, 27 coming Saturday.
Luckily for the Bluejays, the opponents haven't fared much better, meaning a low scoring first half.
Nearly 6:00 into the game, Jill Hein broke a 2-2 tie with a three, her first of three for the game.
Hein scored a game-high 21 points, finishing one rebound under a double-double to help Tabor outdo Friends in rebounding, 42-41.
Hein's basket just midway through the first half gave the Bluejays their largest lead of the half, 11-7.
That was the last basket the Bluejays could hit the next 4:00 and the Falcons used an 11-0 run to take an 18-13 lead.
Tabor outscored Friends 9-4 the final 5:50 before Hein drained the game-tying three to knot the game at 22-all heading into the break.
The Bluejays got a big lift the second half from Kelly Pavlik and Tabor shooting a red-hot 52 percent from the floor, 38 for the night.
Pavlik scored 13, but seven straight in a 30-second span gave the Bluejays a 38-28 lead with 14:06 left in the game.
"Kelly's play for a few minutes there sparked our team," said Allen. "That got us inspired, got us the momentum, and got us that confidence that you need sometimes."
Hein scored another basket with 10:42 left to give Tabor its largest lead of the game, 44-30, and Friends could get no closer than five.
The wind pretty much went out of the Falcons' sail when Stacie Bell fouled out with 3:03 to go.
"It (win) puts us in a position to say we're legitimately in the conference race," Allen said. "We just have to keep pecking away at them."
On tap for the Bluejays tonight is a 6 p.m. meeting in Hillsboro with the St. Mary Lady Spire before traveling Saturday to McPherson for a 5 p.m. game.
Southwestern
Tabor's tough luck in Winfield continued Thursday with the 62-60 loss at Southwestern.
Katie Fast scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds.
Erica Hemmert came out of her slump briefly to score 15 while Stacie Herman added 14.
The Bluejays outscored the Lady Builders 22-19 but were outdone 43-38 in the second.
After shooting 27 percent from the floor the first half and 1-for-12 from downtown, Tabor heated up to 39 percent the second and 44 from three-point range.
Tabor outrebounded the Builders 42-40, 15-9 offensively.
In a tight game, the free-throw line comes up big such as it did for Southwestern, who shoot 19-for-22 the second half and 88 percent for the game.
Tabor was 14-for-20 the second half and 68 overall.
HMS boys teams are 0-3 at Hesston
Hillsboro Middle School boys' basketball teams were 0-3 at Hesston Nov. 30.
The eighth grade team lost 44-38. Scorers were Daniel Jost with 10 points; Clay Shewey and Landon Unruh, six each; Thad Holmes, five points; Andy Klassen, four points, and Isaac Leihy, one point.
The seventh graders were defeated 41-10. Scorers were Adam Suderman, three points; Nathan Vogel, Jacob Fish, Lane Holmes, two points each; and Jacob Edwards, one point.
The mixed team lost 42-18. Scorers were Josh Garrett with 18 points, John Hein and Taylor Loewen, four points each; and David Ratzloff, two points.
The middle school boys' teams travel to Sterling today. Game time is 4:30 p.m.
