We had several players receive NCCAA honors on Thursday night at the Midwest regional tournament hosted at Kuyper College in Grand Rapids, MI.
Rebekah received the honor of National Scholar-Athlete. This goes to any junior or senior that has a cumulative GPA of at least 3.40.
We also had 5 players named to the All-Region team. Rebekah, Lydia and Jenna were all Honorable Mention as voted by the coaches. Ellie and Tiff were named to the All-Region team, and Tiff is nominated for All-American honors as a result of her finishing in the top 5 of voting.
Congrats to all of these players and their teammates that made these awards possible!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Regional Tournament
I must say I had no idea what awaited me and this team a week ago as we prepared to leave for our Minneapolis trip. But here we are without Lyds, a banged and sewed up Jenna, and a 4th seed tournament draw that seemed impossible at best, 3rd place at worst.
But the girls responded to the challenge Thursday night against Grace like they have all year, with a quiet confidence and focus. If you have read any of these posts in the past, you know how slowly we typically start. I told Lyds just before the tip that the only thing we couldn't really afford was a slow start. Honestly, this was our worst of the year. We went nearly 6:30 minutes without scoring, but our defense kept us in it. Tiff hit a few timely 3-pointers to keep us in reach, and we went to the locker room at half down 24-20.
We played fairly well to start the 2nd, but could never get the lead. Grace also changed to a diamond and one defense on Tiff, so we had to be creative. Ellie and Jenna developed a rythym, and Rebekah controlled the boards. Brooke VanLaanen (Van) started and defended their outside shooter. She played a great 30 minutes of basketball, limiting their scorer to 6 points, while scoring 6 herself. She also grabbed 5 rebounds and made 6 steals. We took our first lead of the game with 6:30 left, leading 42-41. We limited them to 3 points the remainder of the game, and pulled away the last few minutes. Tiff led us with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 steals, 0 turnovers. Jenna scored 15 and grabbed 7 rebounds. Ellie played one of her best games in her two years and tallied 11 points. But the bigger line for her was only 2 turnovers in the game. Rebekah grabbed a game high 11 rebounds.
As speechless as I was after our devestating Faith loss, I was almost as speechless after this game. I am so proud of these girls. They have surpassed expectations and overcome adversity. They are young ladies of character and have been a rebuke to me. I'm definitely blessed to serve with them! This puts us in the semi finals on Friday against Maranatha. That will be very difficult, but we will do our best.
But the girls responded to the challenge Thursday night against Grace like they have all year, with a quiet confidence and focus. If you have read any of these posts in the past, you know how slowly we typically start. I told Lyds just before the tip that the only thing we couldn't really afford was a slow start. Honestly, this was our worst of the year. We went nearly 6:30 minutes without scoring, but our defense kept us in it. Tiff hit a few timely 3-pointers to keep us in reach, and we went to the locker room at half down 24-20.
We played fairly well to start the 2nd, but could never get the lead. Grace also changed to a diamond and one defense on Tiff, so we had to be creative. Ellie and Jenna developed a rythym, and Rebekah controlled the boards. Brooke VanLaanen (Van) started and defended their outside shooter. She played a great 30 minutes of basketball, limiting their scorer to 6 points, while scoring 6 herself. She also grabbed 5 rebounds and made 6 steals. We took our first lead of the game with 6:30 left, leading 42-41. We limited them to 3 points the remainder of the game, and pulled away the last few minutes. Tiff led us with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 steals, 0 turnovers. Jenna scored 15 and grabbed 7 rebounds. Ellie played one of her best games in her two years and tallied 11 points. But the bigger line for her was only 2 turnovers in the game. Rebekah grabbed a game high 11 rebounds.
As speechless as I was after our devestating Faith loss, I was almost as speechless after this game. I am so proud of these girls. They have surpassed expectations and overcome adversity. They are young ladies of character and have been a rebuke to me. I'm definitely blessed to serve with them! This puts us in the semi finals on Friday against Maranatha. That will be very difficult, but we will do our best.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Road trip to Gogebic, and the MBBC rivalry game
Well, we're coming down the home stretch and things are coming more and more into focus for us as a team. Truth is we (players and coaches) can see our strengths and weaknesses, but reality is that time is running out to correct and improve. Never was this more evident for us than the past two games.
On Saturday we traveled to Ironwood, MI to play at Gogebic Community College. We had lost to them earlier in our gym by 13. Traditionally in the past we have gone there and not been very competitive. We talked about some obvious areas of emphasis, and played pretty well. A late basket after an offensive rebound gave them a 26-24 halftime lead. Not bad considering we trailed by as many as 12 in the first half. We came out strong in the 2nd half and took the lead by as many as 5 points. However, foul trouble once again became an issue, and we found ourselves down by as many as 11 with just four minutes remaining. The girls turned up the full-court defensive pressure and over the next three minutes cut the lead to three, but that was as close as we could get, dropping a 66-61 decision.
Tiff led us with 27 points, Lyds added 17and Ellie 10. While tallying a lower than usual 6 rebounds in the game, Rebekah contributed in other ways with 4 assists and 4 steals.
On Monday afternoon we traveled to Watertown, WI for the best rivalry in Christian sports - our games with Maranatha. The MBBC women have been dominant in the NCCAA Midwest region, winning 28 consecutive games against Midwest opponents. Long-time coach, and current friend, Clayton Morrison does a fantastic job with his teams year in and year out. This may be his best coaching job in my five years in the region as he has a team made up primarily of underclassmen, and regularly starts at least four freshmen. They are talented and deep, so we were aware it would take our best effort to compete. Add to it that there would be a crowd of 500+ throughout the game, bulding in the 2nd half to 1000+ as we approached the tip time for the guys' game.
We started fairly well, and kept it close early on. However it became obvious to me in the first four minutes of the contest we would struggle to compete because of the tightly officiated contest. With 15:00 left in the first half, Tiff and Ellie had two fouls each, and we had five as a team. The half played out well as both temas exchanged the lead a few times, MBBC going up by as many as 7, but us cutting it to 39-35 on a jumpshpt by Jenna with 10 seconds remaining. We shot 45% in the first half, and knew exactly what we needed to do to pull of the upset in the 2nd half. First, our defense was as poor as we have played in years. And for a team that shoots 62% from the ft line for the season, we were 6 of 18 from the line in the half. But the most troubling and glaring issue on the stat sheet was the foul count. Tiff, Ellie and Jenna all had 3 fouls, and Rebekah and Lyds had 2. To be fair, the officials were calling fouls at an alarming rate on BOTH teams. However, our issues involved all of our starters. There would be no way to compete at this rate.
We had a phenomenal start to the 2nd half. We strted on a 7-0 run to take a 3 point lead in the first 4 minutes, but after a miss on the offensive end, a whistle came that changed how we played the rest of the game: 4th foul on Jenna. We played as well as possible for the next four minutes, and with 12:00 left, trailed 48-44. It was then we hit the wall, and watched as MBBC began hitting inside and out, finishing the game on a 27-8 run to capture a 79-56 win. It does us no good to say that the game was closer than the score indicates because we honestly didn't care. We came to win, played well enough for 28 minutes to do so, but didn't close. Give Clayton and MBBC all of the credit. They are extremely talented and well-coached. It is awfully difficult to see frehman guard Autumn Peotter on the other sideline. She was a long-time basketball camper that I grew to really love and appreciate. She is an outstanding player, but more importantly, an outstanding young lady. She played a great game for the Crusaders.
Tiff once again led us in scoring with 19 points (5 of 12 from 3-pt). Jenna added 17 points and 10 rebounds, Lydia 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals, and Rebekah 14 rebounds. Brooke Byard gave us a lift off of the bench with five points including a huge 3-point basket in the 1st half. But our poor free throw shooting carried into the 2nd half, and we finished a staggering 10 of 31 in the game.
The loss drops us to 8-11 on the season, 4-3 in the region, and likely a 3-seed in the Midwest tounament next week. It was great seeing Utica Christian School senior Erin Steuerwald and her family at the game. Erin is a wonderful young Christian lady that happens to play a good game of basketball!
It was exciting to see our guys pull out a big win in the night-cap in front of 1,000+ fans and an extrremely slippery court (due to a roof leak and humid conditions). The atmosphere is unequaled, and always incredible to watch hundreds of studnets from both schools flood the floor after the game to reminisce about high school, church, missions trips, and summer camp ministries together!
After arriving back on campus at about 2am, were back in the gym at 3:30pm to keep getting better in preparation for the weekend in Minneapolis.
Thanks for reading!
On Saturday we traveled to Ironwood, MI to play at Gogebic Community College. We had lost to them earlier in our gym by 13. Traditionally in the past we have gone there and not been very competitive. We talked about some obvious areas of emphasis, and played pretty well. A late basket after an offensive rebound gave them a 26-24 halftime lead. Not bad considering we trailed by as many as 12 in the first half. We came out strong in the 2nd half and took the lead by as many as 5 points. However, foul trouble once again became an issue, and we found ourselves down by as many as 11 with just four minutes remaining. The girls turned up the full-court defensive pressure and over the next three minutes cut the lead to three, but that was as close as we could get, dropping a 66-61 decision.
Tiff led us with 27 points, Lyds added 17and Ellie 10. While tallying a lower than usual 6 rebounds in the game, Rebekah contributed in other ways with 4 assists and 4 steals.
On Monday afternoon we traveled to Watertown, WI for the best rivalry in Christian sports - our games with Maranatha. The MBBC women have been dominant in the NCCAA Midwest region, winning 28 consecutive games against Midwest opponents. Long-time coach, and current friend, Clayton Morrison does a fantastic job with his teams year in and year out. This may be his best coaching job in my five years in the region as he has a team made up primarily of underclassmen, and regularly starts at least four freshmen. They are talented and deep, so we were aware it would take our best effort to compete. Add to it that there would be a crowd of 500+ throughout the game, bulding in the 2nd half to 1000+ as we approached the tip time for the guys' game.
We started fairly well, and kept it close early on. However it became obvious to me in the first four minutes of the contest we would struggle to compete because of the tightly officiated contest. With 15:00 left in the first half, Tiff and Ellie had two fouls each, and we had five as a team. The half played out well as both temas exchanged the lead a few times, MBBC going up by as many as 7, but us cutting it to 39-35 on a jumpshpt by Jenna with 10 seconds remaining. We shot 45% in the first half, and knew exactly what we needed to do to pull of the upset in the 2nd half. First, our defense was as poor as we have played in years. And for a team that shoots 62% from the ft line for the season, we were 6 of 18 from the line in the half. But the most troubling and glaring issue on the stat sheet was the foul count. Tiff, Ellie and Jenna all had 3 fouls, and Rebekah and Lyds had 2. To be fair, the officials were calling fouls at an alarming rate on BOTH teams. However, our issues involved all of our starters. There would be no way to compete at this rate.
We had a phenomenal start to the 2nd half. We strted on a 7-0 run to take a 3 point lead in the first 4 minutes, but after a miss on the offensive end, a whistle came that changed how we played the rest of the game: 4th foul on Jenna. We played as well as possible for the next four minutes, and with 12:00 left, trailed 48-44. It was then we hit the wall, and watched as MBBC began hitting inside and out, finishing the game on a 27-8 run to capture a 79-56 win. It does us no good to say that the game was closer than the score indicates because we honestly didn't care. We came to win, played well enough for 28 minutes to do so, but didn't close. Give Clayton and MBBC all of the credit. They are extremely talented and well-coached. It is awfully difficult to see frehman guard Autumn Peotter on the other sideline. She was a long-time basketball camper that I grew to really love and appreciate. She is an outstanding player, but more importantly, an outstanding young lady. She played a great game for the Crusaders.
Tiff once again led us in scoring with 19 points (5 of 12 from 3-pt). Jenna added 17 points and 10 rebounds, Lydia 7 points, 3 assists and 2 steals, and Rebekah 14 rebounds. Brooke Byard gave us a lift off of the bench with five points including a huge 3-point basket in the 1st half. But our poor free throw shooting carried into the 2nd half, and we finished a staggering 10 of 31 in the game.
The loss drops us to 8-11 on the season, 4-3 in the region, and likely a 3-seed in the Midwest tounament next week. It was great seeing Utica Christian School senior Erin Steuerwald and her family at the game. Erin is a wonderful young Christian lady that happens to play a good game of basketball!
It was exciting to see our guys pull out a big win in the night-cap in front of 1,000+ fans and an extrremely slippery court (due to a roof leak and humid conditions). The atmosphere is unequaled, and always incredible to watch hundreds of studnets from both schools flood the floor after the game to reminisce about high school, church, missions trips, and summer camp ministries together!
After arriving back on campus at about 2am, were back in the gym at 3:30pm to keep getting better in preparation for the weekend in Minneapolis.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Winning when you play poorly sure beats the alternative!
Our final game at home this season sure proved to be a bit more stressful and exciting than we had hoped, but we sure were thankful for the 54-48 win over Silver Lake College. We were hoping to build off of our great effort in a road loss at Finlandia from Tuesday night, but instead struggled most of the game to find our shooting touch and running game.
We jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but went almost 8 minutes without scoring. Tiff made a couple of critical steals and conversions in the last minute of the half to pull us into a 18-18 tie at the half. Yes, that's 18-18! Our point total equaled our field goal percentage in the half.
In the locker room at the half, the girls were frustrated at their inability to get up and down the floor, as well as convert shots they normally made. We talked about the things we can directly control - effort, intensity, and desire - and agreed to allow the rest to take care of itself.
We responded the second half well, and behind some key 3-pointers by Tiff and hard work by Jenna inside, were able to slowly pull into a lead we would never surrender. We shot better (40%) in the second half and pushed hard to run the floor. Tiff finished with 25 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals, while Jenna had her second consecutive dominant game with 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 steals.
After the game, we honored 6 team members that had played their final home game.
The other obvious thing you notice is that this will leave a lot of opportunities for some Christian young ladies who love the Lord, love basketball, want to enjoy a basketball family relationship, and make incredible memories during their college years to join us. If you're a friend of Lady Pioneer basketball and know of anyone that may fit this description, please encourage them to contact me.
Next game Saturday afternoon at Gogebic in Ironwood, MI. We have never won there and are looking forward to getting better!
Thanks for reading (I think!).
We jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but went almost 8 minutes without scoring. Tiff made a couple of critical steals and conversions in the last minute of the half to pull us into a 18-18 tie at the half. Yes, that's 18-18! Our point total equaled our field goal percentage in the half.
In the locker room at the half, the girls were frustrated at their inability to get up and down the floor, as well as convert shots they normally made. We talked about the things we can directly control - effort, intensity, and desire - and agreed to allow the rest to take care of itself.
We responded the second half well, and behind some key 3-pointers by Tiff and hard work by Jenna inside, were able to slowly pull into a lead we would never surrender. We shot better (40%) in the second half and pushed hard to run the floor. Tiff finished with 25 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals, while Jenna had her second consecutive dominant game with 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 4 steals.
After the game, we honored 6 team members that had played their final home game.
- Kristy Legg, our manager the past 2 years and former player
- Rebekah Watson, first year transfer player for us, but last year of eligibility
- Brooke Byard, a two-year player finishing her certificate this May
- Brooke VanLaanen, a two-year player graduating in May
- Tiffany Chatfield, a four-year player and captain
- Jenna Kurtz, a four-year player, 3-time All-Region selection, and captain
The other obvious thing you notice is that this will leave a lot of opportunities for some Christian young ladies who love the Lord, love basketball, want to enjoy a basketball family relationship, and make incredible memories during their college years to join us. If you're a friend of Lady Pioneer basketball and know of anyone that may fit this description, please encourage them to contact me.
Next game Saturday afternoon at Gogebic in Ironwood, MI. We have never won there and are looking forward to getting better!
Thanks for reading (I think!).
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Close, but not enough...
Well, a snowy 3-hour ride north to play NCAA III Finlandia University didn't hold a lot of promise of a win, and the ability to break 2- game skid. As far as I can see in the records, we are winless against the Lions and have especially struggled at their gym. Last year we lost by 41 at their place, and never looked good in the process. But the girls came out focused and intense on defense, and played their best overall game of the year, leading by 7 at the half, trailing by 3 with 1:20 left, before falling to Finlandia 77-68 Tuesday night.
We set the tone early in the game with our best defensive effort of the year, and attacked the rim. We are a good perimeter shooting team, but tonight the girls did a good job in the first half of driving the ball to the basket and converting, or drawing the foul. This proved to be a good offensive weapon as we went 17 of 23 from the line...in the first half. Finaldia plays as physical and intense of defense as we have faced all year, and we handled it well in the first half. We enjoyed a 41-34 lead at the half.
We actually started the first couple of minutes of the 2nd in good shape, extending the lead to 10 at one point. But Finlandia played even more aggressive defensively and forced turnovers that they converted to easy baskets for a 8-10 minute stretch to take the lead. It honestly seemed like the game was officiated more loosely with less fouls called in the 2nd half, but that was in no way the reason for the loss. We turned it over a few too many times and they converted.
With 1:20 left we cut their lead to three, but after a good defensive half court effort, they had a player make her only shot of the game, a 3-point basket from the corner, to push it to six. After a missed shot, we fouled and they converted, thus sealing the defeat.
We have talked this week about getting better, one practice at a time, one game at a time. Our goal for everything we have left this year is to be better than when we started. We were better at the end of practice on Monday than the start. And we were much better at the end of the game than we were before we started. It's very exciting to have a group of girls that believe and want to work hard.
Some individual highlights from the game:
Tiffany - 18 points, 2 steals, and 8/10 from the free throw line (36 minutes played)
Jenna - 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 assists
Ellie - 17 points, 4 assists, 2 steals (36 minutes)
Lydia - 7 points, 3 assists, 2 steals (35 minutes)
Rebekah - 6 points, 13 rebounds, 5 steals (39 minutes)
Brooke B. - didn't score but gave us some key minutes from the bench with great defense (steals and deflections) and a few rebounds.
Overall, we're ready to build off of this game as we prepare for our final home game Thursday night against Silver Lake.
It was also great to spend time with high school senior and former basketball camper Chelsea Goodreau and her family at the game. Chelsea was accepted to NIU Tuesday night, and we look forward to her contributing to the Lady Pioneers next year! It was also great to see former basketball camper Anna Bishop at the game as well!
Thanks for reading!
We set the tone early in the game with our best defensive effort of the year, and attacked the rim. We are a good perimeter shooting team, but tonight the girls did a good job in the first half of driving the ball to the basket and converting, or drawing the foul. This proved to be a good offensive weapon as we went 17 of 23 from the line...in the first half. Finaldia plays as physical and intense of defense as we have faced all year, and we handled it well in the first half. We enjoyed a 41-34 lead at the half.
We actually started the first couple of minutes of the 2nd in good shape, extending the lead to 10 at one point. But Finlandia played even more aggressive defensively and forced turnovers that they converted to easy baskets for a 8-10 minute stretch to take the lead. It honestly seemed like the game was officiated more loosely with less fouls called in the 2nd half, but that was in no way the reason for the loss. We turned it over a few too many times and they converted.
With 1:20 left we cut their lead to three, but after a good defensive half court effort, they had a player make her only shot of the game, a 3-point basket from the corner, to push it to six. After a missed shot, we fouled and they converted, thus sealing the defeat.
We have talked this week about getting better, one practice at a time, one game at a time. Our goal for everything we have left this year is to be better than when we started. We were better at the end of practice on Monday than the start. And we were much better at the end of the game than we were before we started. It's very exciting to have a group of girls that believe and want to work hard.
Some individual highlights from the game:
Tiffany - 18 points, 2 steals, and 8/10 from the free throw line (36 minutes played)
Jenna - 18 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 assists
Ellie - 17 points, 4 assists, 2 steals (36 minutes)
Lydia - 7 points, 3 assists, 2 steals (35 minutes)
Rebekah - 6 points, 13 rebounds, 5 steals (39 minutes)
Brooke B. - didn't score but gave us some key minutes from the bench with great defense (steals and deflections) and a few rebounds.
Overall, we're ready to build off of this game as we prepare for our final home game Thursday night against Silver Lake.
It was also great to spend time with high school senior and former basketball camper Chelsea Goodreau and her family at the game. Chelsea was accepted to NIU Tuesday night, and we look forward to her contributing to the Lady Pioneers next year! It was also great to see former basketball camper Anna Bishop at the game as well!
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
We're still here...
Long time, no blog! Following my last post after our Moody game, the team dropped me off in Green Bay on their way back to school from Chicago. The next day I flew to Honolulu where I was the speaker for Spiritual Emphasis Week at Hanalani Christian Schools from Monday through Friday. It was an exciting time as I had multiple opportunities to speak and preach to the students in the school. I also helped with basketball practices and got to watch several of their games. I enjoyed a round of golf on Saturday and lots of great food the entire week! On Sunday, Jan. 31st, I preached in the morning at a local church and went to the airport that night. I flew out of Hawaii about 9:30 Sunday night, and landed in Green Bay about 3 pm on Monday. I quickly made my way back to Northland, arriving about 45 minutes before our home game with Gogebic.
Gogebic is always a difficult matchup for us because of their quickness and pressure. However, our team this year handles those elements fairly well on a normal basis. We started slowly in the game, but battled back and played them well even though we trailed by 6 at halftime. However, like a handful of games this year, we shot so poorly, connecting on only 10 of 40 shots in the first half. The cold shooting continued in the second half, but our defense and free throw shooting kept us in contention, as we trailed by 5 with 5 minutes left. But Gogebic connected on some long shots and we couldn't, and they ended up winning 71-58. Tiffany led us with 21 points, and Ellie scored 16 and dished out 6 assists.
After another week off, we hit a very busy final stretch that will tell us a lot about oursleves going into the regional tournament. We start a stretch of 4 games in 8 days beginning with a road trip to Finlandia on Tuesday, Feb. 9th.
Thanks for reading.
Gogebic is always a difficult matchup for us because of their quickness and pressure. However, our team this year handles those elements fairly well on a normal basis. We started slowly in the game, but battled back and played them well even though we trailed by 6 at halftime. However, like a handful of games this year, we shot so poorly, connecting on only 10 of 40 shots in the first half. The cold shooting continued in the second half, but our defense and free throw shooting kept us in contention, as we trailed by 5 with 5 minutes left. But Gogebic connected on some long shots and we couldn't, and they ended up winning 71-58. Tiffany led us with 21 points, and Ellie scored 16 and dished out 6 assists.
After another week off, we hit a very busy final stretch that will tell us a lot about oursleves going into the regional tournament. We start a stretch of 4 games in 8 days beginning with a road trip to Finlandia on Tuesday, Feb. 9th.
Thanks for reading.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)