Chose to watch the highly-anticipated Bethel - UST clash that took place over at Schoenecker Arena last night and although I (along with countless others) was relegated to online viewing, I definitely felt like I got my money's worth.
Throughout the first half and most of the second half as well, the thing that really stood out to me was how well Bethel managed to take Tommie junior post Brynne Rolland out of the equation on this night as the former Apple Valley standout finished with only two points on this night (!); almost unheard of for any Tommie post player of recent years. And although fellow frontcourt mate; junior Allie Spaulding did grab eight rebounds on this night, she would finish with only four points. The other thing that was shocking to see were all the turnovers that the Tommies were guilty of on this night due to the trademark pressure defense that is a Bethel trademark. UST held a 30-29 lead at the halftime break but they looked totally out of sync and made several uncharacteristic mistakes just bringing the ball down the floor. Bethel held a 49-44 lead at the end of the third quarter and although the Tommies were able to close things to within a single possession early on in the fourth period, the Royals found their groove and got their lead stretched out thanks largely in part to senior forward Elizabeth Schwarz. Two free throws at the 8:07 mark and lay-ups at the 7:30 and 6:45 marks had Bethel up 56-51 and then a "3" at the 6:10 mark made it 59-51. One free throw by fellow senior guard Bella Williams with 4:51 left and a lay-up by junior forward Megan Boegel with 4:51 left gave Bethel a 62-51 lead. Throw in the fact that UST junior guard Madi Schirmer had fouled as well by this time and it was hard to deny that the Tommies prospects looked pretty grim by this point. But just when things looked hopeless, senior point guard Macy Hatlestad came to the rescue of her team as she refused to let her team lose. She would put on a simply amazing performance down the stretch; scoring ten of her 26 points in the final 4:45 of the game; including two clutch three-point bombs - one with 3:27 left and a killer from the right corner with 2:26 left - that propelled UST back into the lead. Hatlestad would add a lay-up with 1:42 left and add a pair of free throws with 1:09 left to help seal the deal as the Tommies secured an unlikely 69-66 victory. I can point to a lot of things as to why Bethel faltered in those final few minutes but I think that might take away too much from what Hatlestad did when she had to do it. It was just an amazing performance. Needless to say, Hatlestad's 26 points on this night easily led all scorers and Schirmer would tally 16 points on this night and senior forward Kaia Porter had a solid night as well with 11 points. Bethel was led by Schwarz' 20 points and fellow senior forward Makenna Pearson had 10 points......One of the first things I do when I look at a box score is to look at rebounds and turnovers. But both teams were relatively even on this front (UST with 38 rebounds and Bethel with 37 and UST committing 16 turnovers to Bethel's 15) so those number kind of negated each other. Neither team shot the ball exceptionally well as a whole (save for Hatlestad who caught fire late) as Bethel was 21-55 from FG range for 38.2% and 5-18 from behind the arc for 27.8%. UST was 23-56 from FG range for 41.1% and 7-21 from three-point land for 33.3%. Bethel was better from the charity stripe going 19-27 for 70.4% to UST's 16-24 for 66.7% (and both coaches will tell you that those numbers aren't nearly good enough). Bethel did hold a 32-28 edge in points in the paint. UST did have a 15-11 edge in "second chance" points but it's just uncanny when you look at the numbers and really can't find anything substantial to point to in how/why UST was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. No, when I look at it, Hatlestad's heroics were the difference in this game.
The other game on this night took place up at St Joe where host CSB downed visiting Concordia 74-65. Senior forward Maddie Schmitz had a great night with her double-double of 25 points and 18 rebounds. Junior Mary Sem led a balanced Cobber attack on this night with her 15 points.
One other item of note on this night - and I don't think that it's that huge of a surprise either - is that the NCAA Division III Administrative Committee approved the recommendation Division III Championships Committee to cancel all winter championships - including women's basketball. The primary reason given was the low participation numbers among member schools. Again, I'm not surprised at all by this decision but at the same time, there's arguably an empty feeling that goes with it knowing that there won't be an NCAA Tournament this year. It certainly does make the few regular season games we DO have that much more important - especially for the student-athletes.
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