Hot shooting boosts basketball teams over UCCS |
| Posted by Administrator on Feb 18 2009 |
Photo by Kristen Brockman
Guard Max Froehlich, a redshirt freshman from Pierce, crashes the boards for a rebound against UCCC's Steven Clements, No. 54, on Saturday. Froehlich ended the night with 14 points and eight rebounds in 29 minutes.
By Matt Lindsay
Antelope Staff
The first half couldn't have gone any better for the UNK Women's Basketball Team Feb. 14 as the Lopers put up 51 points in the first 20 minutes before going on to win 85-70 over the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs at the Health and Sports Center.
Wearing special pink jerseys that were on loan from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in honor of Valentines Day and in support of breast cancer awareness, the Loper women led throughout after opening up the game with a 10-0 run.
"(It was) probably one of our best halves this year I would say," said UNK Head Coach Carol Russell. "But you have to look at Colorado Springs. They were a team that is down right now coming in. They had to play at Chadron last night." In addition, Russell said at the game, "They are without one of their leading scorers, Jazzmin-Awa Williams. That makes a difference for our team, and I think we were able to capitalize on that."
The Lopers shot 75.9 percent from the field in the first half as well as out-rebounding Colorado Springs 20-4. The outstanding first half performance turned in by the Lopers allowed Coach Russell to use her bench more liberally, and all but one of her players finished the game with double figures in minutes played.
"I think it's important to get some kids some minutes that typically don't get some minutes," Russell said. "Because they come in, they work extremely hard, and maybe they aren't ready this year for us. But down the road, they need to understand why they're coming and working hard every day. I thought some of our kids gave us great minutes off the bench."
One of the women who played great coming off the bench was freshman Debi Johnson of Grant as she finished the game with 18 points, 14 in the first half.
"I think the biggest thing for Debi- she has to work on her consistency, so it's nice to see her be a little more consistent from half to half," Russell said. "One thing with freshman is you kind of have to ride their inconsistency roller coaster. But hopefully, I think she has been a little more consistent here down the stretch."
Senior Jade Meads of Elm Creek put in 18 points as well, the two leading all scorers. Also finishing the night in double figures was senior Jonni Mildenberger of Sterling, Colo., with 12 points, and sophomore Kaitlin Petri of Kearney who contributed 15.
With the win the Lopers improve to 10-5 in the RMAC and 15-8 overall.
The final result of the Loper Men's Basketball game with the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Saturday night was in doubt well into the final minutes. But St. Edward sophomore Jeremy Cruise hit a three-pointer from the corner to lift the Lopers to a 84-75 win over a Colorado Springs squad that had won five straight coming into the contest.
With the Lopers leading by six, and just over two minutes remaining in the game, UCCS freshman Scott Sublousky hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to draw the Mountain Lions to within one possession of the Lopers.
But Omaha junior Richard Marion took the subsequent inbound pass and found a wide-open Cruise who sunk his only three of the night as the Lopers finished 7-17 from beyond the arc.
"Cruise stepped up and hit a big shot," said UNK Co-Head Coach Tom Kropp. "If I had to pick one play, that would be the play."
In addition to Cruise's big shot, Pierce redshirt freshman Max Froehlich came up big in the second half for the Lopers as he finished with 13-second half points after scoring only one in the first half.
"We pretty much came out in the second half, and because of him (Froehlich) we were able to extend our lead," Kropp said.
The Mountain Lions finished the game with 19 turnovers, which played well into Lopers' hands as UNK finished the game with 28 points off of turnovers.
"The key stat was turnovers. They (UCCS) turned it over 19 times; we turned it over 10," Kropp said. "When you give the other team nine more possessions that helped us out a lot."
Ravenna junior Drake Beranek led all scorers with 26 points. Froehlich finished with 14 points while Marion and Lincoln junior Josiah Parker finished with 11 and 12 points respectively. With the win the Lopers improve to 6-9 in the RMAC and 9-13 overall.
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