Here are the results for the opening night at the Midtown YWCA Women's College Summer League. Boy, does it ever feel good to be covering basketball - live AND in person - again. My apologies for being a bit late in getting this in. Guess that's what happens when you're working a lot like I am right now.
6:00 P.M. Games
GAC Alumni - 65
Carleton - 60
St. Olaf - 53
Macalester - 51
6:50 P.M. Games
St. Kate's - 64
Java - 46
GAC Gold - 61
Augsburg - 45
7:45 P.M. Games
Hamline - 45
UW-River Falls - 41
Northwestern - 62
CSB - 41
8:40 P.M. Game
Bethel - 58
GAC Black - 45 OT
In the 6:00 P.M. slot over on Court 1, the Carleton team got off to solid start but the GAC Alumni team would recover to hold a 17-13 lead by the 14:05 mark of the first half. The Carleton team would forge a 19-all deadlock by the 12:05 mark but then the GAC Alumni team would get on a push that would have them holding a 24-19 lead by the 10:40 mark and they would maintain this five-point edge with a 26-21 lead at the 9:20 mark. Right back came this young Carleton team as they would slice the deficit to a scant point at 26-25 with 6:40 left in the first half and have the game knotted at 29 a piece with 3:45 left and although the GAC Alumni team would recover just enough to hold a 34-32 advantage at the halftime break, this Carleton team was throwing everything at this experienced group but the kitchen sink. But the experience and size that this GAC Alumni team has started paying dividends in the second half as the lead would grow to four points at 35-31 by the 16:30 mark and by the 14:56 mark that lead would grow to eight at 42-34. Then willowy forward Lindsey Johnson (GAC '16) showed that she hasn't lost her touch at all from behind the arc and she would unleash daggers with 9:25 left and again with 3:14 left that had the GAC Alumni team up 60-49. To their credit, the Carleton team would battle back and trim the deficit back down to single digits but it wouldn't be enough as the GAC Alumni team held on for a tough 65-60 win. So while that game certainly had its moments, I guess it'd be fair to say that the other game going on Court 2 between the Macalester team and the St. Olaf team at the same time saved the very best for last. Macalester would have the upper hand from the beginning; building a 7-2 lead by the 15:00 mark of the first half and having breathing space with an 11-5 advantage by the 12:30 mark. The Macalester team would still hold a five-point edge at 16-11 with 8:46 left but the St. Olaf team finally started to find some things offensively and forged an 18-all tie with 1:30 left. Although the Macalester team would manage to get a small lead of 21-18 built up by the halftime break, a lot of the air in their balloon seemed to have gone out. Still, the Macalester team had enough left in them to at least build their lead back up again once the second half got underway; getting a 31-24 advantage by the 16:00 mark and growing the lead to nine at 38-29 by the 11:35 mark. When the Macalester team was up by eight at 47-39 with 6:55 left, they seemingly had everything going their way and certainly seemed in control. But this St. Olaf team; whether by design or divine intervention, suddenly caught fire down the stretch and had the deficit reduced to single possession and would forge a 51-all tie with just under a minute left. The crazy thing is that the Macalester team had chances to ice this one away for good from the charity stripe but was unable to do so. That left the door open for the St. Olaf team to pull off a miracle finish with just :01.6 on an inbounds play as senior-to-be K'Lynn Lewis got the ball to junior-to-be Rachel Kelly and the Northfield native calmly drained the winning jumper from the right wing to give the St. Olaf team a thrilling 53-51 victory.
No such drama on either court during the 6:50 P.M. slot. Over on Court 1, the St. Kate's team would build a 17-7 lead on the Java team near the midway point of the first half and that lead would grow to 26-13 with 5:07 left. The Java team would make some inroads on the deficit; getting back into single digits but the St. Kate's team still held a 29-20 lead by the halftime break. The Java team appeared to be threatening again as they managed to reduce the deficit down to seven at 33-26 at the 16:20 mark of the second half but they would get no closer as the St. Kate's team slowly but surely built their advantage to 50-37 with 6:40 left and 3:00 left the St. Kate's team would have an insurmountable twenty-point cushion at 60-40 as they cruised to the finish line in this one. A similar story was unfolding over on Court 2 as the GAC Gold team would get a 16-9 lead on the Augsburg team by the 12:15 mark of the first half and that lead would grow to 30-18 with 6:00 left and the GAC Gold team would have a ten-point cushion by the halftime break up 34-24. The Augsburg team would finally start catching some fire in the early minutes of the second half as they reduced the deficit to three at 36-33 by the 16:30 mark but this young Augsburg team was unable to sustain the early run that they had. The GAC Gold team had the lead back to six at 42-36 by the 12:30 mark and maintained the cushion up 46-39 with 9:29 left. A key run by the GAC Gold team saw them rebuild that double-digit cushion up 55-41 and they never looked back after that.
In the 7:45 P.M. slot over on Court 1, a good battle was developing between the Hamline team and the UW-River Falls team in a mock MIAC-WIAC clash. The UW-River Falls team would certainly have the upper hand early on; holding a 10-2 advantage at the 15:15 mark of the first half but the Hamline team would shake off the early cobwebs and quickly close the gap to just one point down 12-11 with 7:50 left. Things would stay tight for the rest of the first half with neither team gaining much of an advantage and fittingly things were deadlocked at 22 by the halftime break. The UW-River Falls team did manage to build a four-point 31-27 advantage by the 12:30 mark of the second half and with 5:25 left, they were able to maintain that four-point edge up 37-33. But a 5-0 burst by the Hamline team changed all that as that would enable them to grab a 38-37 advantage. The UW-River Falls team was not ready to concede by any means and they would respond grabbing a 39-38 advantage with 1:58 left but right back came the Hamline team as a big three-pointer gave them a 41-39 lead. UW-River Falls would manage to get the game tied again at 41-all but junior-to-be Chan'el Anderson-Manning would give the Hamline team the boost they needed at just the right time with a coast-to-coast lay-up with :32.5 left and two free throws to boot with :20 left as the Hamline team escaped with a fun 45-41 win. Over on Court 2, things were tight early on between the Northwestern team and the CSB team with the game tied at 6-all at the 16:00 mark of the first half and the CSB team would hold a slim 17-14 lead with 8:10 left and hold that small three-point lead up 21-18 with 4:15 left. The Northwestern team, however, would grab the upper hand down the stretch of this first half and by the halftime break they held a 23-21 lead. The CSB team would manage to poke its nose out in front one more time in this game with a 28-27 advantage at the 16:18 mark of the second half but things soon started going south for the CSB team as Northwestern would get on a bit of a run to hold a 39-32 lead with 9:10 left. That lead would grow to double-digits at 50-37 with 5:00 left as the Northwestern team was able to put things in cruise control the rest of the way.
Just one game in the 8:40 P.M. slot on Court 1 but am sure glad I hung around to cover it as the Bethel team was taking on the GAC Black team. Not surprisingly, this one was a back-and-forth affair as the game would be tied at 4-all at the 15:00 mark of the first half and at 8 a piece by the 13:30 mark. This one would be tied at 12 a piece by the 10:59 mark before the GAC Black team was finally able to open up a small advantage with a 19-18 lead with 8:15 left and the GAC Black team would grow the lead to four at 26-22 with 4:05 left and the GAC Black team would enjoy at 31-25 by the halftime break. The GAC Black team would maintain the five-point edge up 36-31 early on in the second half and although the Bethel team appeared to be on the verge of a comeback as they cut the deficit down to two at 36-34 by the 17:40 mark, the GAC Black would find another burst as they would build a 45-37 lead at the 14:45 mark. The Bethel team could have been in some serious trouble right then and there but again they found a way to battle back as they would get on a 6-0 burst of their own to cut the deficit down to two at 45-43 by the 12:12 mark. This got this contest back on much more even terms like it was early on and things would stay tight down the stretch. But just when it appeared that the GAC Black team was finally in position to close this one out with a 55-52 lead, the Bethel team was able to come up with a huge "3" in the waning seconds to knot this one at 55 a piece and when the GAC Black team was unable to cash in on their last possession in regulation, off to overtime we went. Fittingly, in this short 2:00 minute overtime session, both teams played some serious defense and it almost looked as if the game might end up in a tie. However, the Bethel team had vastly different ideas and with just three ticks left on the clock, they drained a three-pointer to claim this exciting contest.
No comments:
Post a Comment