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Washburn Moves on to Women's Title Game
By David Boyce
Washburn's women's basketball team scored the first six points, and that announced to Northwest Missouri that it was going to take a special effort to beat the Lady Blues.
It was Washburn that was special on defense. The Lady Blues held Northwest Missouri to 24 percent shooting in the first half and took a 15-point lead into halftime.
Nothing changed in the second half as Washburn cruised to an 80-66 victory Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the MIAA Women's Basketball Tournament at Municipal Auditorium.
Washburn, 25-3, will carry a 12-game winning streak into Sunday's championship game. Tipoff is 1 p.m.
"We played pretty well," Washburn coach Ron McHenry said. "We got off to a 15-point lead in the first half, and in tournament play you want to get off to a good start and get some confidence.
"I thought we played with poise most of the night. I thought the girls were ready to play. At this time of the year that's what you want."
The cliché is defense wins championships. Washburn plays defense better than any team in the MIAA. What makes the Lady Blues so good at it?
"All of us," said Hope Gregory, who finished with 17 points. "We hold our own self responsible."
The proof of what defense means occurred in the first half. Washburn shot only 35 percent from the field, but still carried a sizeable 41-26 lead into halftime.
Part of the reason was the Lady Blues were hot from outside. They were 6-for-13 behind the arc. Amanda Fessenden made two three-pointers and four other players made one.
Those timely outside bombs coupled with some inside buckets from Dayna Rodriguez and the all-around scoring abilities of Rose Hammond and Brette Ulsaker was too much for the Bearcats.
"We've seen that zone before. I just started attacking it," said Hammond, who finished with eight points, nine rebounds and five assists. "I was trying to get Dayna 1-on-1 inside."
Northwest Missouri tried to counter with a little of quick shots before Washburn could set in defense. The shots simply weren't falling.
Abby Henry had some success. She finished with a game-high 25 points, but needed 22 shot attempts to get there.
"The big focus was Henry and trying to slow her down a little bit," Hammond said. "We tried to limit her shots and get her off the free throw line."
The closest the Bearcats were the whole game was a 6-4 deficit. Washburn scored 11 of the next 15 points for a 17-8 lead.
"We had our opportunity early, but we went 0-for-9 nine to start the game and they were shooting pretty poorly," Northwest Missouri coach Gene Steinmeyer said. "If we wanted to take control of it we really needed to get the lead and then just ward off all their runs.
"But they got the lead. It stayed around 10 for a long time. It stayed around 15 for a long time and it stayed around 20 for a long time. We just couldn't make the run to get over the hump."
Northwest Missouri's last push brought the Bearcats within five at 17-12. It was all Washburn the rest of the way in the first half.
Freshman Laura Kinderknecht started it with a trey, followed by a basket by Rodriguez that extended the Lady Blues' lead to 22-12.
Several minutes later Washburn was up 31-16.
"They are a very good defensive team," Henry said. "There was always a hand in somebody's face. That had something to do with our shots not going in."
The Lady Blues maintained a double-digit lead the entire second half, ending Northwest Missouri's season. The Bearcats finished 14-15.
"Our kids played hard and tried hard, but they just weren't quite ready for it this year."
But the good news is everybody returns next season, so the experience the Bearcats got in the MIAA Tournament should help a lot next year.
"It will help us a lot," Henry said. "We've been here. We've been able to experience it and see what it is like."
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
