January 27, 2010

Washburn Women Down Northwest Missouri

By David Boyce

TOPEKA, Kan. - Washburn's women's basketball team started its game with a three-pointer by sophomore Stevi Schultz. Senior Amanda Fessenden quickly added another three-pointer.

The treys taught Northwest Missouri that when the Lady Blues are bombing away from the outside they are tough to beat.

Washburn scored the first 12 points of the game, held off a spirited second-half comeback attempt by the Bearcats and won 80-63 Wednesday evening at Lee Arena.

"What a great start to the game," Washburn coach Ron McHenry said. "We had a good first half. We played well and shot the ball well. The only disappointing thing the whole night was getting boards."

Signs are growing that the Lady Blues have put their three-game losing streak behind them with their second straight victory to improve to 15-3 overall and 9-3 in the MIAA.

Has Washburn turned the corner?

"Yes," Schultz said.

Northwest Missouri dropped its second straight game and fell to 10-9 and 6-6.

"I hope we just learn from it," Northwest Missouri freshman Shelly Martin said. "The next eight games we just want to win all of them. We don't play the underdog anymore. We just want to go out and prove to people that we can compete with them."

The Lady Blues couldn't have started the game better. After the two treys, center Dayna Rodriguez scored on a layup and was fouled. She hit the free throw for the three-point play.

Forward Hope Gregory imitated Rodriguez with a basket and a free throw.

All this happened in the first 2 minutes, 39 seconds. The Bearcats were on their heels because of the outside-inside scoring Washburn unleashed.

"I feel like we are unstoppable when we are hitting our shots," said Schultz, who finished with 13 points.

"We came out at the beginning of the game real strong."

The Lady Blues were just as tough on defense, causing one missed shot after another. It led to a commanding 16-1 lead that Northwest Missouri never managed to recover from.

Washburn went into halftime ahead 38-18. They Lady Blues shot 52 percent from the field and held Northwest Missouri to 18 percent. Washburn was 6 for 11 behind the arc.

Despite the huge deficit, the Bearcats kept fighting and clawed their way to respectability.

Providing the second-half spark for Northwest Missouri was Martin, who made three, three-pointers in the first six minutes of the second half.

The Martin treys helped the Bearcats close to 47-38 with about 10 minutes left. Martin was simply brilliant behind the arc, going 6-for-6. She finished with a game-high 23 points.

"We came out just a little flat and our coach told us in the locker room we needed to get it going," Martin said. "It put a little fire in us."

But it wasn't enough.

When the game got just a little tight, Washburn went back to bombing. A three-pointer by Fessenden increased the Lady Blues' lead to 52-39.

Senior Brette Ulsaker was probably the hottest shooter for Washburn. She made three of four from behind the arc and scored a career-high 19.

Ulsaker also dashed Northwest Missouri's last hope when the Bearcats closed to 54-47 with a three-pointer by Abby Henry with 8:49 left. Ulsaker hit a layup and followed that with a three-pointer to boost the Lady Blues' lead to 59-47.

Gregory might have been toughest to defend with her combination outside-inside game. She finished with a career-high 16. Rodriguez added 15.

As a team, the Lady Blues were 10 for 21 on three-pointers. It's hard to beat a team that's shooting nearly 50 percent on three-pointers.

"It's just amazing," Ulsaker said. "We have a lot of great shooters on the team. We have Dayna in the post. When she's getting doubled she passes it out and I can do some things off the drive and set some people up. It just gets the momentum going and it helps the kids coming off the bench."

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer to the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.