NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal Game - Trinity vs Whitman 3-10-17

Made my way over to the St. Paul side of town on this Friday afternoon battling the usual round of rush hour traffic that the Twin Cities is famous for to take in the two NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinal Games at Schoenecker Arena on the campus of UST.  The first game this evening pitted Trinity out of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference going up against the designated home team, Whitman, out of the Northwest Conference.  Not knowing much about these two squads, I was interested to see what both teams would bring to the table on this night but I knew well enough that given the fact that both of these teams had made it this far, you could be sure that they were both very good.  Whitman had battled its way out of the Puget Sound pod; knocking off the Loggers in Tacoma this last weekend in the second round while the Tigers were coming into this contest with only one blemish on its record.

Maybe it was the unfamiliar surroundings.  Maybe it was the long travel involved for both teams.  In any event, both sides struggled mightily with their perimeter shooting in the early going and scoring seemed to come at a premium.  With the score tied at 2 a piece, Trinity got a bit of a boost when Blues senior guard Alysse Ketner was tagged with her second foul of the contest at the 6:58 mark and was promptly yanked by Whitman Head Coach Michelle Ferenz.  Tiger freshman forward Abby Holland sank the obligatory free throws for a 4-2 Trinity lead but the Blues responded with a 7-0 push. Willowy junior point guard Casey Poe got into the paint for one score at the 6:34 mark to tie the game at 4-all and Poe's short shot off the glass at the 5:54 mark pushed Whitman ahead 6-4.  Senior guard Chelsi Brewer's "3" from the left top area with 4:40 left capped the run for a 9-4 Blues lead but Trinity responded with a 5-0 push.  Senior guard Monica Holguin drained a "3" from the left wing area with 3:53 left and two charity stripe shots by fellow senior guard/forward Allison Staley with 3:38 left had this game leveled again at 9 a piece.  Whitman would retake the edge on a lay-up by freshman reserve forward Lily Gustafson with 1:45 left but that was answered by the Tigers as a Holland lay-up with 1:19 left tied the game at 11.  Back came the Blues as junior forward Emily Rommel connected with a lay-up with :55 left for a 13-11 Whitman lead but that was met and matched by Trinity's Holguin who connected with a pretty lay-up in transition with :19 left.  The Blues poked their nose out in front one more time before the end of the opening period as Rommel dropped one freebie with :06.5 left but slender junior reserve guard Micah Weaver's jumper from the right wing with just :00.3 left got Trinity out in front 15-14 going into the second period.

But whatever advantage that last-second shot by Weaver the Tigers gone soon evaporated as Whitman proceeded with a 6-0 push.  Two Brewer free throws at the 8:47 mark and a short turnaround jumper by Rommel at the 8:11 mark had the Blues back out in front 18-15 and that lead increased to 20-15 when Poe slithered through defenders at the 7:34 mark for a lay-up.  A jumper from the right elbow area at the 6:11 mark maintained the five-point edge at 22-17 as did Brewer's lay-up with 4:33 left.  But just when Whitman appeared to be creating just a little bit of separation, the Tigers clawed their way right back into the thick of things.  Senior reserve guard Elizabeth Balido banged home a "3" from the left top area off the glass with 4:15 left that cut the deficit down to two points at 24-22 and a score in the paint by junior forward Mollie Hughes with 2:59 left kept Trinity in that two-point range trailing 26-24.  Holguin was then able to snare an offensive rebound for a putback of her own miss in transition with 2:33 left to again level the contest at 26 a piece.  The Blues responded as a short jumper from the right side by sophomore reserve forward Maegen Martin with 1:16 left and a Martin lay-up off of an inbounds pass with :25 left appeared to give momentum back to Whitman with a 30-26 lead but the Tigers cut the deficit to a scant point on a "3" from the left wing area by Staley with :16.3 left as both teams headed for the locker room with the Blues clinging to a 30-29 lead.  The fact that the Tigers were only trailing by one had to be somewhat encouraging for Head Coach Cameron Hill as a check of the first half box score shows that Whitman was pounding the glass in the first half and held a sizable 29-18 lead in the rebounding department including 22 defensive rebounds.  On the positive side for Trinity, they committed only four turnovers to nine for the Blues.  Neither team shot exceptionally well from FG range as Trinity went 11-35 for 31.4% and Whitman went 13-34 for 38.2% and the Blues three-point shooting was a negligible factor as they were only 1-7 from downtown for a paltry 14.3% and the Tigers were only marginally better in this department going 3-11 for 27.3%.

An 8-0 run by Whitman to start the third period appeared to give them a nice little safety net.  Strong freshman forward Makana Stone was able to snare an offensive rebound for a putback of her own miss at the 9:02 mark and a pretty turnaround jumper off of an inbounds pass by Poe at the 7:54 mark had the Blues up 34-29.  Then Rommel was able to muscle into the paint for a score at the 6:48 mark and two Rommel free throws at the 6:13 mark not only had Whitman up 38-29 but now the Tigers had another problem as well as Holland had collected her third foul of the evening.  A Martin lay-up in transition with 4:25 left in the period maintained the nine-point edge at 40-31 and a Martin score in the paint gave the Blues their first double-digit advantage at 42-32.  Trinity would manage to make some dents in this cushion as a Weaver jumper from the left top area with 3:14 left cut the deficit down to eight points at 42-34 but when Whitman's freshman reserve guard Mady Burdett drained a "3" from the right top area with 2:09 left for a 45-34 Blues lead, Trinity looked to be in a heap of trouble.  But the Tigers kept their cool and slowly whittled away.  Holland, back in the game with those three fouls, got into the paint for one score with 1:51 left and the Georgetown, Texas native followed that up with a pretty reverse lay-up with 1:12 left that trimmed the deficit down to seven points at 45-38.  Two Holguin free throws with :27.3 left and a tough drive and finish by Staley with just :05 left in the period now cut the deficit down to a much more manageable five points at 47-42 going into the fourth period.

Rommel's lay-up in transition at the 8:50 mark of the fourth period appeared to have the Blues off and running again with a 49-42 advantage but Trinity responded right away as Weaver uncorked a "3" from the right wing in a transition opportunity that now had the Blues lead down to tenuous four points at 49-45.  Some teams may have panicked right then and there but Whitman would not fold. Though Rommel missed on two free throw attempts at the 8:28 mark, she more than made up for that a bit later when she connected with a lay-up and drew a foul in the process and the ensuing "and one" pushed the lead back up to seven points at 52-45.  Then it was Poe working her magic as she slithered into the lane for a finish off the glass with a deft touch at the 7:27 mark for a nine-point cushion at 54-45.  The Tigers would again close the gap, however, as a score in the paint by Holland at the 7:13 mark and a drive and lay-up by Holguin at the 6:39 mark had the deficit down to five points at 54-49 and one Weaver free throw at the 6:15 mark had the deficit down to a tantalizing four points again at 54-50 but again Whitman managed to close the door.  Poe connected with a lay-up in transition at the 6:10 mark and a Stone lay-up with 4:17 left upped the lead back to eight points at 58-50.  One charity stripe shot by Ketner with 3:49 left now made it a nine-point game at 59-50 and although the Tigers were able to trim the deficit down to seven points on two free throws by Holguin with 3:08 left, Hill was quick to recognize that the sands of time were running out on his team and he called a timeout to set up strategy for the home stretch.  But the Blues would stretch the lead to nine points on two Brewer freebies with 2:54 left at 61-52 before Trinity could make one last push.  Holland connected with a lay-up with 2:06 left and a Weaver jumper from the right wing area with 1:18 left slimmed the deficit down to seven points at 63-56.  The Blues then suffered an untimely turnover and that allowed Weaver to bang home a "3" from the right wing area with 1:11 left that again had Trinity in that four-point range again trailing 63-59.  That, however, was as close as the Tigers would get and Whitman was finally able to shut the door for good.  Poe found a crack on Trinity's defense and slithered through for a lay-up with :57 left and one Martin free throw with :50 left widened the advantage to 66-59.  Two insurance free throws by junior reserve forward Sierra McGarity with :35.8 left and one more by Stone with :25.3 left pushed the Blues to the Regional Final Game with a 69-59 victory.

An incredibly gracious Hill of Trinity thanked UST for being a wonderful host for this Sweet 16 pod and also thanked MIAC rep and Bethel Head Coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer for all of his work as well. As for the game itself, Hill came clean.  "The stats tell the story....Everybody saw what happened.....I think the key here is just showing my gratitude to this team and the way they played all season long. Most importantly these seniors who did everything they could do all year to put us in position to have such success......Just awfully proud of them as a head coach and a person because now I have five brand new best friends."  A check of the final box score indeed does reveal some rather ugly numbers from a Trinity standpoint.  Whitman simply owned the glass on this night by a 58-33 count on the boards that included a 41-26 edge in defensive rebounds.  But my concern were the missed opportunities that the Tigers let slip through their fingers all night and going 22-69 from FG range for 31.9% won't get the job done most of the time and I asked Hill about the idea that this contest seemed like a game of missed opportunities for his team.  "Without a doubt.....We battled for defensive stops and couldn't close possessions with defensive rebounds.  I'm guaranteeing you that that's going to be the story of the game.  We got to the basket and couldn't finish.....It was a tough night for us to not get those balls to drop from two to three feet from the rim.  The girls did an incredible job of getting angles and an incredible job of sharing the ball and creating opportunities to score.  And that's why this game is so great and that's why we love it so much because the ball can bounce your way or the other team's way and it really doesn't have that much to do with game-planning or coaching or talent as much as it does with the way the ball bounces sometime and tonight the ball didn't bounce our way."  I also asked Hill about Weaver; the junior from Poth, Texas and her solid performance off the bench tonight.  "Micah's done that all year long and Micah can start on any team in the country and she does for us sometimes and sometimes she comes off the bench......In fact, one of the reasons we were the type of team we were this year is because when I needed to ask Micah how she felt about coming off the bench, she interrupted me and said, 'Coach, do whatever's best for the team.'  And that just doesn't happen.....She played her role flawlessly all year long for this team and she was the calming presence that we needed in moments where things were getting a little bit rattely and Micah would just make a play; she would just do something to get the team settled down and get us refocused.  I'm SO glad we were able to get her to come to Trinity."

Whitman's Ferenz admitted that her team had to get over a few jitters in the early going.  "I thought we were pretty nervous to start.....And so we got off to a bit of a tough start...Got some good shots...Trinity's pretty athletic so that seemed to set us back a little bit but we adjusted....Taking care of the ball was huge and I thought we did a pretty good job of that......We did a nice job of crashing the boards so I think that gave us the edge because there's other facets of the game that we didn't do so well."  I asked Ferenz how her squad his seemingly come together after a late regular season loss at home to conference rival George Fox.  "I drive them crazy.....But after that George Fox loss, we lost our home court advantage and we haven't been home for forever and we sat down as a group and we really watched film and saw things that we could do better....They could have said that 'George Fox is a really tough place to play at so forget it'.  But they took the challenge.  And I think they grew up a lot taking that challenge and I think that showing up at George Fox (in the NWC Playoffs), making the adjustments and getting the win in a tough environment against a good team that it just kind of snowballed from there.  They needed to get over that hump of playing a tough opponent and getting it done and they did so credit to them.....And we got a lot better in the last two weeks."  I also asked Poe who was in attendance in the press conference about how versatile this team is; i.e., that it seems to favor the half-court game but can also make the most of the transition opportunities it gets which seems to be one of her strengths.  "I like transition but I like both half-court and transition and I think we work well in transition......But I'll take whatever chance I can."  Ferenz also talked about how her squad is used to playing on back-to-back nights as that is how things are done in the Northwest Conference with games on Friday night and Saturday night so this experience isn't anything new for them.

Another reason why Whitman was successful on this night was a very balanced scoring attack as Rommel's 16 points and 10 rebounds for a "double-double" led the way while Poe added 14 points and Brewer chipped in with 11 points.  And probably the only real fly in the ointment for Ferenz and her staff was the fact that the Blues were guilty of 19 turnovers on this night.  Trinity as well had a relatively balanced scoring attack as it was Weaver's 16 points that led the way while Holguin added 15 points and Holland poured in 14 points.  I mentioned the rebounding stat that was in firm control of the Blues on this night but this also contributed to another important stat that often gets overlooked:  Whitman also held a decisive edge in those "second chance" points at 14-3 and an even bigger edge in points in the paint at 42-28.