St. Olaf vs Bethel 1-31-18

Made my way back over to Robertson Center on the campus of Bethel University on this last night in January to take in this contest between visiting St. Olaf and host Bethel.  This has been an incredibly rough year for the Oles as they were coming into this game with a 3-16 overall record and 1-11 in MIAC play and were on a five-game skid.  For the Royals, they were looking at redemption after dropping a bitterly-contested game with CSB last Saturday and needed a win to re-energize their season - and keep their flickering NCAA Tournament hopes alive as well. 

St. Olaf started out on defense in a 2-3 zone but that certainly didn't seem to faze the Royals one bit as back-to-back three-point bombs - one by senior guard Abby Miller from the right corner at the 9:46 mark and another one by sophomore forward Taite Anderson from the left corner at the 9:13 mark - quickly had Bethel out in front by a 6-0 count.  The Oles broke the ice when lanky sophomore forward Britta Koenen connected with a short jumper in the lane at the 8:41 mark but the Royals responded with a 16-2 blitz.  Willowy junior post Hannah Johnson connected with a short jumper off of an inbounds pass and got fouled in the process and her ensuing "and one" extended Bethel's lead to 9-2.  Then Johnson; the former Duluth East standout, showed her versatility by draining a "3" from the left wing area at the 7:08 mark.  Two free throws by sophomore guard Haylee Barker at the 6:21 mark and two more by senior reserve guard Hannah Simpson at the 5:51 mark stretched the Royal lead to 16-2.  Then senior reserve sharp-shooting guard Jasmin Bretoi did what she does best - nailing three-point bombs - and she got one to fall from the right wing area at the 5:24 mark for a 19-4 Bethel lead and Ole Head Coach Dave Stromme did not at all like how things were going down and called a halt to the action to try and get his troops regrouped.  But Bretoi would help extend the Royals' lead to 22-4 with another three-point bomb - this one from the right top area with 4:53 left - to get Bethel's lead to 22-4 before the Oles could finally make some dents.  Freshman guard Keegan Mulvihill connected with a lay-up with 4:08 left and sophomore reserve forward Ella Stromme did likewise with 1:18 left that reduced the St. Olaf deficit to seventeen points at 25-8.  Koenen would help the Oles efforts with her lay-up with :50 left in the opening period but Bethel's Anderson capped off a magnificent opening period for the Royals with her lay-up with just :01 left that gave the home team a sizable 28-10 advantage heading into the second period. 

St. Olaf hoped to make more inroads on this already-sizable deficit they were looking at once the second period got underway.  Mulvihill got sent to the charity stripe at the 9:13 mark where she promptly dropped two free throws and a score in the paint by sophomore forward Samantha Tisa at the 8:15 mark got the deficit down to sixteen points at 30-14.  Tisa would also connect with a lay-up at the 7:17 mark to keep the Oles in that sixteen-point range at 32-16 but things slowly spiraled out of control for St. Olaf from there.  The Royals' Bretoi got a lay-up after a backcourt steal at the 6:55 mark and a drive and finish by senior guard Angie Kirchoff at the 5:45 mark got the Bethel lead to twenty points at 36-16.  Complicating the Oles already-perilous situation was that fouls were beginning to creep up on them and by this time sophomore forward Abby Wilgers had already collected her third foul and the former Benilde-St. Margaret's standout had to sit for a spell.  That gave the Royals an opening for another run.  Simpson was able to knock down a short jumper with 4:09 left and then Abby Miller unleashed two dagger three-point bombs - one from the left corner with 3:35 left and another one from the right top area with 2:04 left - that stretched Bethel's lead to 44-20.  A Barker lay-up with 1:40 left moved the lead to 46-20 and St. Olaf's Dave Stromme was clamoring for another timeout.  The Oles were able to generate a bit of offense before the halftime buzzer as Koenen got one free throw to go down with 1:14 left and got one more to go down with :27.4 left.  Mulvihill would also connect with a lay-up with :02 left but St. Olaf was still staring at a 48-24 score at the half and they were on the wrong end of it once intermission commenced.  Surprisingly, the Oles didn't shoot all that badly from FG range; going 9-19 for 47.4% and even more surprising were that rebounds were even at 15 a piece.  But the one stat that Dave Stromme and his staff had to wince at during the halftime break was that St. Olaf was guilty of 18 first half turnovers and several of those led to easy Bethel points. 

The Royals' Barker really went to work in the early moments of the third period as she helped Bethel increase its already-sizable safety net.  The former Maple Grove standout first made a drive along the left baseline for a finish at the 9:47 mark and then connected with a lay-up at the 9:24 mark to get the Royals' lead to 52-26.  St. Olaf's Dave Stromme called another timeout in vain hopes of trying to salvage something out of this imminent disaster for his team but Bethel continued with its onslaught.  Barker made another drive and finish at the 8:46 mark and Johnson followed up with a lay-up at the 8:15 mark to balloon the Royals lead to 56-26 and now St. Olaf's Dave Stromme had to call another timeout to try and keep this ship from sinking.  But a 9-2 Bethel lead just made things worse.  Anderson got into the paint for a score at the 7:26 mark that drew a foul in the process and her obligatory free throw got the Royals lead to 59-26.  Then Abby Miller connected with a lay-up in transition at the 6:08 mark that drew a foul and her ensuing "and one" pushed the lead to 62-26.  Simpson dropped two charity stripe shots at the 5:14 mark while, at the same time, St. Olaf's foul troubles only complicated their situation.  Koenen was tagged with her third foul by this time as did Tisa less than a minute later plus the fact that Bethel got into the bonus with 4:22 left.  After the Oles' Mulvihill connected with a short, turnaround jumper off the glass with 3:00 left, the Royals finished off the third period with a 9-0 run.  One Barker free throw with 2:50 left and a short jumper by Bretoi with 2:46 left had Bethel up 68-30.  With 2:17 left, Barker struck again with a steal near midcourt and a subsequent lay-up and a Bretoi lay-up in transition with 1:14 left stretched the Royals' lead to 72-30 and St. Olaf's Dave Stromme called another timeout to try and save the Titanic from sinking.  But Bethel's Anderson capped this third period with a drive along the left baseline for a finish with :51 left that allowed the Royals to carry an insurmountable 74-30 lead into the fourth and final period.

With such a large lead at hand, Bethel Head Coach Jon Herbrechtsmeyer prudently decided to give his chain gang the rest of the night off and inserted more and more of his bench players into the contest.  Freshman reserve forward Makenna Pearson got one free throw to go down with 7:46 left and Bretoi got two more to go down with 7:24 left for a 77-32 Royal lead.  St. Olaf was able to make some dents into this cushion by this point as a short jumper off the glass by Mulvihill at the 6:39 mark commenced a 7-0 Ole run.  Freshman reserve guard Brigid Miller dropped two free throws with 4:44 left and sophomore reserve guard Katie Crowley banged home a "3" from the left corner with 3:51 left that made it a 77-39 ballgame.  St. Olaf sophomore reserve guard Kelsie Gerovac made a drive into the lane for a finish with 3:12 left and also dropped two free throws with 2:32 left as well.  Royals reserves also caught some of the spotlight down the home stretch in addition.  Freshman reserve guard Danielle Williams snared a steal and dashed the other way for a lay-up with 2:05 left and freshman reserve guard Emma Ostrenga got a "3" from the right corner with :12.5 left in the contest as Bethel breezed to an easy 87-51 victory. 

The big announcement at the conclusion of the contest was that Bethel's Herbrechtsmeyer officially recorded his 300th win during his time as Head Coach of the Royals' program.  But Herbrechtsmeyer really didn't make too much of the deal stating that it was his players over the years that helped him win games and that the memories created over his 16-year stretch at Bethel are a lot more important to him.  More importantly, I think this win gives the Royals team an opportunity to feel good about themselves again after the disappointment this last Saturday at the hands of CSB and they can still get themselves into position for a good seed in the MIAC playoffs if they can take care of business down the stretch.  Meanwhile for St. Olaf, there's simply not a lot you can say at this point that will make the situation over on the west side of Northfield any better.  This is an incredibly young team to begin with but it goes deeper than that.  Arguably three of their best players are either out of the country studying or injured.  Junior forward Makenna Ash is currently studying abroad and fellow junior guard Meg Andersen has been out with concussion protocol since November.  Sophomore guard Ella Skrien is also injured and out for the season as well so you take away those three players and you're left with a young group that is pretty green around the gills in more ways than one and getting thrown to the wolves as they did tonight can understandably be frustrating.  I'm not close enough to the program to know what's going on for sure but I just get this sense of a lot of frustration permeating the whole program right now.  Is there change in the offing at St. Olaf?  Being someone who has had his job taken away from him, I simply could not wish that on anyone else.  And I've seen too many coaches at the university that I love - UCLA - lose their jobs so I could never advocate that.  But you have to wonder sometimes if the current situation is sustainable or not.  Bethel had an incredibly balanced scoring attack on this night as Bretoi led the way with 14 points and both Johnson and Barker had 13 points while Anderson and Abby Miller each had 12 points.  St. Olaf's Mulvihill actually led all scorers with her 15 points on the night and Koenen added 10 points.  Even I was a bit shocked to discover that St. Olaf actually held a small edge on the boards by a 31-29 count but that was offset by the 37 turnovers that the Oles were guilty of on this night.  Yikes.  A couple of other items that stand out:  The Royals had a 38-18 edge in points off of those turnovers and held a 34-24 edge in points in the paint as well.