Women's basketball tallies second straight victory
Mike Vaught
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Sports
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"This was a big win for us," said head coach Leslie Crane. "We secured our place in the conference tournament and put some distance between us and IUPUI. We knew that was something we needed to do."
With the second ranked defense in The Summit League, the 'Necks held the Jaguars to 35 percent from the field, just as they did the in their last meeting.
"We battled with them," Crane said. "This time we're playing with more confidence than we did then. We had to really fight to get that win. Tonight we had to battle too, but we're more confident now."
The offense has started to hold things up on its end of the court. The Leathernecks shot 42 percent from the field and had nearly five players score in double figures.
"We were pretty close, I would have liked to have seen that," Crane said. "The kids are just playing with more confidence right now. They're confident going to the bucket, they're confident setting their screens and they trust each other."
That trust was evident Saturday night. The 'Necks had a game high 17 assists and 26 points off the bench, compared to the Jaguars' 12.
After falling behind early, the 'Necks responded with five unanswered points from senior guard Jordon O'Brien to take an 8-4 lead.
From then on, the 'Necks would never trail again.
The 'Necks pulled ahead by eight before freshman forward Jackie Rieger nailed a buzzer-beater to bring the lead to 29-19 at the halfway mark.
"They are all playing well together," Crane said. "That's a big key and we've got to continue with that."
The second half was more of the same for the 'Necks who started the half on a 10-2 run to pull ahead by 18. The Jaguars were only able to get as close as 11 points down.
At 61-41 the 'Necks had their largest lead of the night before being held scoreless for the final three minutes. Yet the Jaguars ran out of time, and the 'Necks came away with a 61-50 win.
Junior forward Jackie Barton went 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and had a season-high 15 points to lead the 'Necks in scoring.
"They were open and I felt better about taking them," Barton said. "Like she said, it feels a lot better knowing that your teammates do have a lot more confidence."
O'Brien followed with 10 points and junior guard Erica Lewis had nine. Junior forward Anneloes Kodde and senior center Ashley Lord both chipped in eight and Lord had all eight come in the second half.
"What Ashley did was she got a lot of put backs," Crane said. "She just got herself in a better position to score. She was in front of the bucket more tonight and did a nice job finishing."
The 'Necks have a long break before their next contest, which will be on the road as they travel to Shreveport, La., to face Centenary at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Feb 13.
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