Made the trip back over to venerable Hutton Arena on the campus of Hamline University on this cold and windy Wednesday night to take in this important late regular season battle between visiting GAC and host Hamline. The Gusties were coming into this game on a 13-game tear; their latest victim being St. Kate's this last Saturday to keep their firm grip on the top spot in the MIAC. But the Pipers were coming into this game with some notable momentum of their own and had survived a big scare from Augsburg this last Saturday. More importantly, they were trying to keep their firm grip on the third spot in the MIAC Playoffs and if they could somehow find it in them to pull off a huge upset on this night, they would be sending a clear message to the rest of the conference that this late push was no fluke.
Hamline, in fact, looked to have things going their way in the early moments of the opening period when senior point guard Chan'el Anderson-Manning banged home a three-point bomb from the left top area off the glass at the 9:38 mark to draw first blood. The Gusties, however, were having no part of this as two quick GAC scores - a lay-up in transition by senior forward Grace Benz at the 8:36 mark and a picturesque three-point bomb by senior guard and former White Bear Lake standout Anna Sanders at the 8:18 mark - pushed the Black & Gold ahead 5-3. The Pipers leveled the contest at five a piece when willowy sophomore forward Faith Johnson connected with a lay-up at the 7:51 mark but then GAC changed the complexion of this game for good with a big 12-0 run. Sophomore point guard and former Maple Grove standout Kylie Baranick would get this run started at the 7:29 mark with a lay-up and then the Gusties would turn up their pressure defense that would force a subsequent turnover and slender junior guard Emma (not evil) Kniefel would get a quick lay-up out of it at the 6:51 mark to put the Gusties up 9-5. Then Sanders would unleash more terror from behind the arc with her second trey on this night - this one coming from the right wing area at the 6:23 mark and after a foiled Piper possession, sophomore reserve forward Morgan Kelly would snare an offensive rebound for a putback at the 5:57 mark that made it a 14-5 game and Hamline Head Coach Alex Focke had seen enough to know that a stoppage in play was needed to get his squad back on track. But even this halt in the action didn't prevent the Gusties' Baranick from capping this run with a three-point bomb of her own from the right corner at the 5:10 mark that stretched the GAC lead to 17-5 before Hamline could finally find some solid footing. Senior guard Alyssa Williamson would connect with a lay-up in transition with 4:59 left and a pretty one-handed floater in the lane by Anderson-Manning with 2:24 left got the Pipers back into single-digit range again down 17-9. Unfortunately for Hamline, they would soon find themselves in a big hole again before this first period was over as the Gusties finished up on a 6-0 push. Junior reserve guard Riley Queensland would connect with a lay-up with 2:04 left and Sanders would close things out with two scores - a lay-up with 1:39 left and a pretty drive into the lane and finish with 1:01 left that gave GAC a somewhat commanding 23-9 advantage.
The Gusties put Hamline in an even tougher spot in the early moments of the second period thanks to two pretty give-and-go lay-ups by Baranick - one at the 8:21 mark and another at the 7:42 mark - as GAC saw its lead balloon to 27-9. The Pipers finally got a bit of a reprieve on some timely - and badly needed - three-point bombs. Freshman reserve guard and former Centennial standout Camille Cummings would bang one home from the right wing area at the 6:54 mark and electric junior forward Lydia Lecher finally got untracked as she would drain a "3" of her own from the top of the key at the 6:16 mark that narrowed the deficit down to fourteen at 29-15 and two Cummings free throws after she was fouled at the 5:29 mark kept Hamline in that fourteen-point range down 31-17. But drawing closer would prove to be a hard row to hoe as the Gusties opened up some more distance between themselves and the home team. Improving junior reserve guard Syd Hauger knocked down a pair of free throws after getting fouled at the 5:11 mark and Kniefel would use one of her patented bursts of speed to get into the lane for a pretty finish with 2:56 left to re-establish the eighteen-point advantage at 35-17 and a short jumper by Sanders with 2:14 left would maintain that margin at 37-19. With :56.2 left, GAC would get into the bonus when Benz drew a foul and the two ensuing charity stripe attempts by the Steele, ND native both found their mark and two more by Kniefel after she was fouled with :38.4 left gave the Gusties their largest lead yet at 41-19. Hamline's Lecher would get to the free throw line with :24.2 left after getting fouled and knock down a pair of freebies but trailing by twenty at 41-21 was not the Pipers' Focke had in mind as both squads retreated to the locker room for the halftime break. And it was becoming easy to see that the Gustie defense was causing a bevy of problems for Hamline as the Pipers shot a paltry 3-11 from FG range in the second period alone for 27.3%.
Hamline obviously needed a spark to start the third period and it definitely looked like they got it as two quick scores by the Pipers - a short, turnaround jumper in the lane by Johnson at the 9:39 mark and a three-point bomb by Lecher from the top of the key at the 8:38 mark - had the deficit down to fifteen at 41-26 and Gustie Head Coach Laurie Kelly; perhaps a bit alarmed at this development, called a thirty-second timeout to make some quick adjustments and to get her team calmed down a bit as well. Still, Hamline was able to close the gap a bit more as a lay-up by Lecher at the 7:44 mark and a lay-up in transition by Johnson at the 6:48 mark gave the home crowd some hope with the deficit cut to thirteen points at 43-30. But it was here where GAC firmly took control of things again as they finished up this third period on a 9-2 push. Baranick would knock down a jumper from the right wing area at the 6:29 mark and a strong offensive rebound and putback by Morgan Kelly with 4:19 left got the Gustie lead back up to seventeen at 47-30. Hauger would connect with a lay-up in transition with 3:52 left and would also add one free throw after getting fouled with 3:20 left to make the lead twenty at 50-30. With 1:10 left, the always-reliable Sanders would knock down a jumper from the left wing area just inside the arc and although Hamline's Williamson would make a hard drive into the lane for a finish with :45.5 left, the Pipers were on the wrong end of a 52-32 score as this one morphed into the fourth period.
And the Gusties would continue to pour it on once the fourth period got going. Pairs of free throws by Hauger - at the 7:42 mark and again at the 6:36 mark - pushed GAC's lead to 56-32. Senior reserve forward Sienna Wiebusch would get one free throw to go down after getting fouled at the 6:11 mark and a lay-up in transition by Kniefel at the 5:43 mark bulged the Gustie lead to 59-32. Perhaps the only fly in the ointment coming down the home stretch for GAC was that Benz would suffer a slightly sprained ankle with 4:18 left but she was able to get back to the bench without too much trouble and it didn't look too serious. Hamline was able to get a pair of back-to-back scores as junior reserve guard Michaela Stamer would knock down a pair of free throws after getting fouled with 4:13 left and Anderson-Manning would connect with a lay-up with 3:39 left but trailing 60-38, this one was simply too far gone. The Gusties would add a couple of insurance scores for good measure as Queensland would connect with a lay-up with 2:06 left and junior reserve guard Lexi Schermann would maneuver into the paint for a score with :43 left as GAC romped to a 64-41 victory and with it, the Gusties clinched not only the number-one seed for the upcoming MIAC Playoffs but also claimed their first-ever outright MIAC regular season title as well.
A lot of the conversation I had with GAC's Laurie Kelly afterward swirled around the release earlier in the day of the Regional Rankings that inexplicably has the Gusties in the sixth spot of seven teams in Region 9 (and I'll have a LOT more to say about this in another article). Without giving the candy store away, I'll just say that Laurie Kelly has no wishes to play with matches and flirt with disaster. "We'll just do it the old-fashioned way" she said as far as what lies ahead after the MIAC Playoffs. But, getting back to this game, I think two things stood out to me: (1) The fact that Laurie Kelly can move her chess pieces when she has to and there really isn't any kind of drop-off in the level of play and (2) the Gusties just seem to keep getting better and better on defense. The numbers in the box score would support this notion. Consider: This normally high-octane offense that Hamline has was limited to going 14-58 from FG range for 24.1% and 4-19 from downtown for 21.1%. And for a team that arguably does live and die by its three-point shooting, this is almost unheard of. But the Pipers' woes weren't limited to just that either. The Gusties pounded Hamline on the boards by a 47-31 count and GAC enjoyed a sizable 34-20 advantage in points in the paint. And although turnovers themselves weren't that big of an issue, GAC sure did a lot more with them having a 23-5 edge in points off of those turnovers. Throw in the fact that the Gusties also had a 12-5 advantage in those all-important "second chance" points along with a 24-14 edge in bench points, you can easily see that this was simply not to be for Hamline on this night. One other item that caught my attention (and likely caught Focke's attention as well) was that the Pipers were 9-15 from the charity stripe on this night for 60% and while that may have been a moot point in this particular game, that's something you want to fix before you delve into the MIAC Playoffs.
Just another solid, solid outing for the always-reliable Sanders whose 14 points not only paced the Gusties but led all scorers as well and Baranick looks as comfortable and confident as ever at the point guard spot and she was right behind with her 12 points. Hamline's Lecher led the way for the home team on this night with her 10 points.
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