Women's Basketball Pushes Past St. Norbert, Advances in the NCAA Tournament
-- Story provided by Hope College Athletics --
After 10 back-and-forth minutes with a game opponent in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament, the Hope College women's basketball team headed to its bench to recoup.
The Flying Dutch heeded the instructions from head coach Brian Morehouse, taking control during the second quarter and beginning their postseason march to an 82-61 win against St. Norbert College (Wis.) on Friday in front of a DeVos Fieldhouse crowd of 1,528.
"A well-coached St. Norbert team. Starts are difficult right now," head coach Brian Morehouse said. "We were a little out of sorts in the first quarter. I think that adversity will help us. I think we responded really well.
"I challenged them to compete harder on defense, specifically to rebound better. We turned that up."
Hope, 26-2 and last season's national champion, advanced to the NCAA Tournament second round for the sixth consecutive postseason appearance and the 17th time overall.
The Flying Dutch will host Wartburg College (Iowa) on Saturday, March 4, at 7:30 p.m at DeVos Fieldhouse. Tickets are on sale online. They also can be purchased at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students with ID and for youth.
Ironically, Wartburg is the last team to beat Hope in the NCAA Tournament. The Flying Dutch have won nine postseason games in a row since a 79-49 loss at Wartburg in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
Wartburg defeated Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio) in Friday's first game.
"Excited to be moving on," Morehouse said. "At this stage, you're just hoping to play well, win the game and move on."
Hope held a narrow 17-14 lead after the first quarter after St. Norbert nearly matched the Flying Dutch in field-goal shooting and 3-pointers made.
In the second half quarter, Hope stayed hot from the floor while cooling down the Green Knights.
Hope raced to a 42-28 lead and never trailed.
Senior forward Savannah Feenstra (Osceola, Indiana / NorthWood) powered the Flying Dutch offense by scoring 14 of her game-high 19 points before halftime.
Feenstra finished nearly perfect from the field, going 8-of-9 with the lone miss coming from 3-point range. Feenstra also grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
Morehouse said Feenstra excelled at getting herself open throughout the game.
"The great thing was we didn't run a ton of specific things to her, but I think she moved really well without the ball and became a tough moving target," Morehouse said. "A lot of it was Sav moving without the ball. I also thought it was her teammates really recognizing as the ball moved and (St. Norbert) expanded out how they could hit Sav. She went to work and was super efficient."
Feenstra made it easy to find her, senior guard Ella McKinney (DeWitt, Michigan / DeWitt) said.
"It's all about trust," McKinney said. "You can ask any of her guards out there. Whenever we drive, we know Sav's going to be in the right spot. When we drive, we know she's there, we're just looking to the defenders to see if two or three people are there. If they are, we'll find our shooters outside. If they are not, she's there."
McKinney, who scored 15 points herself, was one of three Hope players with three assists.
Seniors Claire Baguley (Ada, Michigan / Forest Hills Central), Meg Morehouse (Zeeland, Michigan / Zeeland East), and Kate Majerus (Sycamore, Illinois / Sycamore) also recorded three assists apiece.
Baguley also reached double figures in scoring with 10 points, all after halftime.
Feenstra credited her teammates.
"They did all the work," Feenstra said. "I was in the right spot, but it was easy because my guards did all the work for me. I know they're going to work as hard as they can (and) get those drives. I've just to do my part and help them out."
St. Norbert finished the season at 24-4. Four Green Knights reached double figures, including three with 13 points apiece: Kaycee Gierczak, Casey Jepson and Emma Morrisey.
Trine Moving on to Second Round of NCAA Tournament with 79-69 Victory
-- Story provided by Trine University Athletics --
DUBUQUE, Iowa – In the First Round of the 2023 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament, the Trine University women's basketball team defeated Washington University out of St. Louis, Missouri 79-69. The Thunder took an early lead and overcame a quality third quarter by their opponents to move on in the postseason.
It is the 22nd win of the season for Trine as they continue on in the NCAA Tournament with a 22-6 record. The Bears of WashU end their year at 17-9.
"I'm really proud of my team, we really battled and that's a really good WashU team," head coach Andy Rang said in the postgame media conference. "We're excited about moving on."
Senior guard Makayla Ardis was the catalyst on both ends of the floor and neared a triple-double on the evening. Ardis played 37 minutes and neared a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. The offense flowed best when running through the upperclassmen on the night, "The first three gave me a lot of confidence and I continued to look to score and make plays," Ardis remarked.
On the first possession of the game, Ardis was true from beyond the arc to give the team a good start. Senior guard Alyssa Argyle followed that up with a trifecta of her own while sophomore guard Katie Tate and senior forward Katie Sloneker completed a 10-3 run to open the game.
The lead was extended to double digits at 17-7 thanks to a pair of baskets by Ardis and a driving layup from Tate. Freshman forward Abby Sanner scored on a post touch to go into the first media timeout ahead 19-9.
The remaining 3:44 of the first quarter would be a dogfight defensively as neither team was able to get more than one field goal. Trine led at the break 21-12.
The largest lead of the contest came early in the second period when the Thunder buried WashU on the fast break. Sophomore guard Sidney Wagner converted an and-one to start the second while Ardis and Wagner were unstoppable in transition to make it 28-15 at the media timeout.
The break in action was useful for WashU as they held Trine to just four points over the final 6:34. The teams entered the locker room with Trine on top 32-25.
A couple of three-point makes by the Bears cut the Thunder lead to one possession at 34-31, but the sharpshooter sophomore Sierra Hinds knocked down consecutive three's from the left wing to help get the lead back up to 11 at 44-33. "Coach looked at me and said to knock down shots," Hinds mentioned. "I was looking for my shot and my teammates did a great job at running the offense to get the open looks."
A scoring drought followed for Trine, however and an 13-0 tally for WashU gave them their first lead of the game, 46-44. The Thunder were held off the board for a total of three minutes and 40 seconds before senior forward Sophie Sloneker got her first points in the game.
Wagner had this to say about overcoming some struggles in the third quarter: "We were struggling a little bit coming out in the third quarter but Sierra's three's brought us a lot of energy and we really needed it."
Argyle and Hinds connected from downtown late to give Trine a 54-50 edge heading into the final 10 minutes. After allowing just 25 points in the first half, the Bears were able to rattle off 25 in the third quarter alone to cut into the Thunder advantage.
The teams traded punches in the fourth quarter as neither wanted to see their season come to an end. Ardis converted an offensive rebound into two to begin the frame and Argyle knocked down her third shot from beyond the arc to counter a make on the other end of the floor. Ardis distributed the basketball to Sanner inside for an and-one to go into the media timeout up 61-55.
A pair of three-point plays for the Bears made it a one-possession ballgame once more with under three minutes to play. Tate made a layup and a huge three off a steal to give Trine some breathing room at 67-61 with two minutes left.
With the only chance at a comeback for WashU coming from missed free throws by the Thunder, the team combined to go 11-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to secure the double-digit win 79-69 and move on to Saturday.
Trine shot an even 50.0% (28-of-56) in the game and dominated the battle in the paint 36-20. Both teams were 9-of-25 (36.0%) from three-point range. The rebounding (28-27), assists (15-15) and turnover battles (14-16) were fairly even between both squads as well.
The Thunder will face the winner of the Loras College versus Knox College game on Saturday, March 4 in the Second Round. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. CST (8:30 p.m. EST).
