Women’s basketball continues on in NAIA championships after 80-62 Pioneers victory
Junior guard Hannah Spearman (12) going into the basket to make a shot.
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh
By Isaac Dawson
The Concordia women’s basketball team won their game against the Wayland Baptist University Pioneers this Saturday in Friedrich Arena with a final score of 80-62, taking the win in the second round of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championships and moving on to the Round of 16 in Sioux City, Iowa.
The first half began well for Concordia, who pulled off an 11-point lead by the end of the quarter. A good number of successful threes made the difference at the beginning of the game; neither team’s passing game quite managed to get through the opposing defense and the Bulldogs adapted.
The lead grew even larger near the end of the quarter when the Pioneers’ offensive formation started unraveling and they gave up the ball a few times, something Concordia seized on immediately to end the quarter at 23-12 with a 3-pointer from junior Kendal Brigham.
Wayland came back with a second wind in the next quarter, catching up slowly but surely to the lead as Concordia’s offense let the ball go for a few unfortunate turnovers. A good number of free throws and defensive rebounds saved the Bulldogs from falling behind, alongside the occasional three or jumper, but offensively they suffered in the second quarter.
Coach Olson had this to say about the strategy leading into the game and the second quarter scoring: “They had a dominant post player, so we just thought, ‘we have three posts between Kristen [Vieselmeyer], Abby [Krieser] and Rae [Kelty] to wear her down.’ Offensively we just needed to move a lot. We got too stagnant in the second quarter. Once we started to move a bit in that second half we were able to open up the game.”
The third quarter saw Concordia back in gear as they dropped a series of threes off the bat to shoot the lead back up nearly to double digits, and the Bulldogs’ rebound game was good in the third quarter as well. Several key free throws from junior Taysha Rushton and junior Sadie Powell helped keep Concordia ahead, finishing the quarter at 59-48. Wayland’s momentum wasn’t helped by the ball getting stuck in the rim, either.
The Bulldogs kept the Pioneers to a minimum of 10 points for the rest of the game. Concordia had a very high number of rebounds, and their game in the paint was unrivaled. Keeping Wayland to a fourth quarter score of 12, the Bulldogs pulled through for 21.
Junior Abby Heemstra commented on what made the game unique, saying, “Our senior class has been a really big part of all our careers so far; they’ve been great leadership. Knowing for some of them this could be their last game at home… we just really wanted to win it for them.”
The team as a whole scored 28 of 62 field goals (45 percent), 11 of 29 three pointers (38 percent), and had 15 assists. They made 13 of 15 free throws and had 38 rebounds.
Brigham and junior Abby Krieser were the leading scorers with 18 and 16 points respectively, both taking home the most rebounds at six each and Brigham getting the most assists at eight.
The basketball team now has a NAIA championship record of 2-0. Their next game is the NAIA third round match against the University of Providence Argonauts in Sioux City, Iowa in the Round of 16 starting March 21.
