Sunday, December 5, 2010

Nice W for Glenville State, ONU nearly upsets No. 1, plus even more

For the first time this season, the NCAA Division II women's team at Glenville State played a regular season game in front of its home fans. The Pioneers didn't disappoint, beating Pitt-Johnsontown 111-96 Saturday in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Plenty of good stuff here. Six players reached double figures for coach Bunky Harkleroad's team, with Tenisha Wilson, Miranda Reed and Beth Deren all finishing with 17 points. Danielle Woodmore had 16, Kristen Golden went for 13 and Kenyell Goodson added 10 for Glenville State (5-3, 3-0 WVIAC).

Reed and Woodmore, who shared time at point guard during my visit to watch them play at Bluefield State, opened together in the starting lineup and, while not quite as dominant as they were against the Lady Blues, still put up some solid stats. They combined for 11 assists and five steals, and Wilson had a team-high eight rebounds. Deren tied Reed's high with three steals.

Here are The Formula things:

- Attempted 96 shots
- Attempted 36 3-pointers
- Rebounded 48 percent of the misses on offense
- Forced 27 turnovers
- Attempted 10 more shots than Pitt-Johnstown

This pretty much was the Pioneers' game from the get-go, with the Lady Cats leading only at 8-7. The lead at the break was 55-41 for Glenville State and the margin grew to as much as 18 points in the second half. Nice effort for Coach Harkleroad and his team. They remain one of three teams unbeaten in the conference, along with West Virginia Wesleyan and West Liberty.

The Pioneers continue their four-game home stand Tuesday with a visit from WVIAC foe Concord, with game time 5:30 p.m. EST. Good luck to them.

On the second day of the Holiday Inn Express CCAC Challenge, the Olivet Nazarene women's team had an impressive outing Saturday, even if it came in a 96-88 loss to Union, the No. 1 team in the NAIA coaches' poll and the two-time defending national champ.

A 12-2 run midway through the first half gave the Tigers (6-3) a 32-15 lead, with Danielle Tolbert and Holly Schacht getting it started with consecutive 3-pointers. Lisa Beyer got inside for a tip-in, Simone Coburn made a jumper and Rachel Kearney followed with a basket of her own while the Lady Bulldogs (10-0) could manage only a pair of free throws from Zeinab Chan.

ONU still was on top 50-40 at the break and a 3 from Miranda Geever increased that to 53-42 early in the second half. But Union rallied to get back in it, using a 16-4 spurt to take its first lead since early in the game at 58-57 on a 3-pointer from Kayla Hudson. It was nip-and-tuck for several minutes before the Bulldogs moved ahead by 10 at 84-74 on a three-point play by Hope Adams.

That's when the Tigers bounced back. Geever converted two free throws to cap a 14-6 run to make it 90-88 with 2:08 left to play, but those were the last points for the home team. Union got two buckets from Chan, who was voted MVP of the tournament, and a pair of free throws from Kayla Bryant to finish out the scoring.

Still, a solid effort from coach Doug Porter's ONU squad, who beat No. 14 Trevecca Nazarene 110-82 Friday night. Here are The Formula stats from Saturday's game:

- Attempted 85 shots
- Attempted 45 3-pointers
- Rebounded 34 percent of the misses on offense
- Forced 28 turnovers
- Attempted 16 more shots than Union

Danielle Tolbert led the Tigers with 16 points and Coburn added 13. Five players got 16 minutes of run and another seven got at least 10, with 17 players getting on the court at one time or another. Pretty amazing. Point guard Danielle Pipal, one of my favorite players, went for seven points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals, and Denita Phelps had a team-high four steals.

Coach Porter and his team stay at home to play Purdue Univ.-Calumet on Tuesday, with game time scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST.

Meanwhile, the NCAA Division III men's team at Grinnell lost its second consecutive road game in the Midwest Conference, with Ripon coming out on top 125-113 Saturday. The Red Hawks (4-1, 2-0 MWC) are expected to battle St. Norbert at the top of the conference, a spot the Pioneers (4-2, 0-2) hope to be in, as well.

It's amazing the Grinnell was even in this one after a casual glance at the box score. Ripon made 81 percent of its shots for the game (42-for-52) yet still found itself tied at 103 with 6:45 remaining in the game. A late run secured the victory for the home team, but I'm sure Pioneers coach David Arseneault saw plenty to be proud of from his team.

Here are The Numbers for Grinnell:

- Attempted 104 shots (goal is 94)
- Attempted 81 3-pointers (goal is 47)
- Rebounded 38 percent of the misses on offense (goal is 33 percent)
- Forced 30 turnovers (goal is 32)
- Attempted 52 more shots than Ripon (Wow!)

Freshman Aaron Levin continues to get more and more comfortable, leading a balanced attack with 24 points. He was followed by Matt Chalupa (23 points), Griffin Lentsch (18) and Patrick Maher (13), with a total of 14 players putting points on the board. As usual, 13 players got at least 12 minutes of time and 16 got in altogether.

You hopefully noted the high number of 3-pointer attempts for the Pioneers. The majority of these came from Chalupa (7-for-17), Levin (6-for-15) and Lentsch (5-for-15), and Chalupa added a game-high four steals. Maher and Scott Kaitz had five assists apiece for Grinnell.

For Ripon, Aris Wurtz had 35 points and 12 rebounds, Alex Tomshek went for 22 points and 10 rebounds, Taylor Koth finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds and point guard Scott Gillespie had 15 points and 14 assists. Whew, those are a lot of numbers, right?

The Pioneers have a busy week ahead, with three games in the next six days to finish off the pre-Christmas schedule. It starts with a visit from Principia on Monday, with game time at Darby Gymnasium is 7 p.m. EST.

A team we haven't checked in with in a bit is the women's team at Jackson (Mich.) Community College, which opened its season with a victory but since had lost six consecutive games. Make that seven after another one Saturday, but this wasn't your ordinary loss.

The Jets (1-7) fell on the road to Edison State in Ohio 133-131 in double overtime in the highest-scoring NJCAA Division II game ever. Jackson CC attempted 119 shots, also a national mark. Erika Bullock had a quadruple-double for the Jets, finishing with 31 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals. Very nice.

Others in double figures were Caitlyn Owens (19 points), Jessica Vidalez (18), Nicole Wurster (16) and DaJana’e Wilson (15). According to coach Andy Hoaglin, the home crowd gave his team a standing ovation when it left the court.

“I can’t take anything away from our girls,” Hoaglin told the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot. “They’re getting it. I’m not happy with the results, but we’re getting very close. We’re not as worried about November and December as we are being ready for when league play begins in January.”

The Eisenhower HS boys' team from Blue Island, Ill., lost its second consecutive game Saturday, when Rich East beat the Cardinals 89-69. Coach Mike Curta reports that for the first time, his team met only two of The Formula goals. Here's what Eisenhower put up:

- Attempted 89 shots (goal is 80)
- Attempted 44 3-pointers (goal is 32)
- Rebounded 30 percent of the misses on offense (goal is 35 percent)
- Forced 25 turnovers (goal is 26)
- Attempted 13 more shots than Rich East (goal is 24)

The Cardinals return to the court Tuesday, at home, against Tinley Park, with tip scheduled for 8 p.m. EST. The best of luck to Coach Curta and the team, and I have no doubt they will see better days ahead.

I also need to update you on the Wabasha-Kellogg HS girls' team from Minnesota, which lost to Lewiston-Altura 68-55 last Thursday. Coach Glen Irvin checked in with me via e-mail, and I'll let him tell the tale:

Coach Irvin: "... We played an athletic Lewiston-Altura team that was ready to run with us as I expected. The thing I didn't expect is to pickup 12 fouls in less than 5 minutes to begin the game. That put us off of our game and I actually had to take out my best post player and rebounder Nicki Alexander for the majority of the first half with 3 fouls in the those first 5 minutes.

"At halftime we were only down by eight 37-29 so I felt comfortable that we would get back into the game especially because the game was perfectly frantic! We ended up losing by ten ... though the game was closer than that but we were fouling at the end to make up the difference."

Here are Wabasha-Kellogg's Formula stats:

- Attempted 86 shots (goal is 80)
- Attempted 31 3-pointers (goal is 40)
- Rebounded 24 percent of the misses on offense (goal is 40 percent)
- Attempted 32 more shots that Lewiston-Altura

Good stuff. Coach Irvin and the Falcons go at it again Tuesday, at home, against St. Charles, and I wish them the best of luck.

2 comments:

  1. Love following the progress of all the Systems teams. Thanks KP for making this happen!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No sweat, Coach Rob. Glad you like it!

    ReplyDelete