Women's basketball beats Metro; men lose at buzzer |
| Posted by Administrator on Feb 25 2009 |
Photo by Cody Riedel
Jonni Mildenberger, a senior forward from Sterling, Colo., fights for position against Metro State's Megan Sinclair, a senior forward. Meldenberger lead the Lopers.
By Matt Lindsay
Antelope Staff
Despite giving up 22 turnovers, the Loper women pulled out an 86-75 win over Metro State Friday night at the Health and Sports Center.
The win was the eighth straight for the Lopers, and the second of the season over Metro. Although her team had turnover trouble, Head Coach Carol Russell thought her team executed when they had to and will learn from their mistakes.
"Overall, when we needed to score we executed pretty well," Russell said. "You know (we had) a couple miscues when they put that press on- just didn't know where to go with it. Unfortunately if that happens in a close game against a good team, that can really hurt us. So luckily we can learn from it, and hopefully we can get better when we see a team like that again."
To combat the sloppy play, the Lopers benefited from another big night by Elsie freshman Debbi Johnson, whose 20 points off the bench came as a big boost for the Lopers.
"She (Johnson) has been doing a great job off the bench for us," Russell said. "I think people forget about her with all the other weapons we have for starters, and she comes in there and is always ready to score."
The Lopers finished the game shooting 23-27 from the free-throw line as well as out-rebounding the Roadrunners 33-29. Sterling, Colo., senior Jonni Mildenberger finished the game as the Lopers' top scorer with 22 points and was honored after the game for reaching the 1,000-career point mark. Coach Russell was happy to see one of her top players reap the reward for all her hard work.
"Unfortunately it (breaking the 1,000-point mark) happened a couple games ago, but we were just able to do it here at home for her to give her that recognition," Russell said.
In addition to Johnson and Mildenberger finishing in double-figures, Elm Creek senior Jade Meads finished with 16 points and Colorado Springs, Colo., freshman Vanessa Leaper finished with 10 points. Metro State's Jasmine Cervantes finished leading all scorers with 24 points despite fouling out in the second half.
The win moved the Lopers to 11-5 in the RMAC and 16-8 overall while Metro State fell to 9-7 in the RMAC and 11-13 overall.
It looked like the Loper men were going to beat Metro State at home for the fifth straight year when Omaha junior Richard Marion's mid-range jumper from the baseline tickled the twine to put the Lopers up by one with two seconds remaining in the game.
It wasn't meant to be, though, as the Roadrunners subsequent inbound pass hit a streaking Richard Minor, who put in the winning layup just before the buzzer sounded lifting Metro State to a 64-63 win over the Lopers Friday night.
"I can't think of many more games where we lost like that," said UNK Co-Head Coach Tom Kropp.
Although Metro State (21-3, 15-1 RMAC) came into the game ranked 18th in the nation in Division II and riding a 12-game winning streak, it looked like the Lopers had the Roadrunners' number early as UNK lead 37-25 after the first 20 minutes of play.
"The first half was by far the best half we have had all year," Kropp said.
The second half was a different story as Metro was able to slowly cut into the Lopers lead after two of UNK's top scorers, Ravenna junior Drake Beranek and Pierce redshirt-freshman Max Froehlich, got into foul trouble with Froehlich eventually fouling out after scoring 15 points.
Kropp said that being short two of his better players for a good chunk of the second half definitely hurt his team.
"We don't have a lot of depth so we don't really have a choice to take our chance, so we did take our chances," Kropp said.
In addition to Froehlich finishing in double-figures, Beranek finished with 18 points and Lincoln junior Josiah Parker put in 19 points, 12 in the first half. The Lopers (9-14, 6-10 RMAC) were out-rebounded by the Roadrunners 42-26.
Back
