The D-II national championship is on Friday, March 26 at 7:00 pm at the St. Joseph Civic Arena in Missouri and will air live on ESPN2.
Fort Lewis 79 Franklin Pierce 64
Sixth-ranked Fort Lewis’s balanced attack was too much for Franklin
Pierce and their star forward Johannah Leedham as the Skyhawks upset the
Ravens 79-64.
Averaging 27.1 points per game before the tournament, the Skyhawks held
Leedham to only 13 points. According to head coach Mark Kellogg,
shutting Leedham down was a key part of Fort Lewis’s strategy coming
into the game.
“We knew we had to focus the game plan on her and build around it,”
Kellogg said. “It happened to be probably the worst of her career at
the right time for us. But we would like to think that we had a heck of
a lot to do with that.”
Franklin Pierce’s point guard, Cynthia Gaudet, outscored Leedham,
finishing with 23 points. However, it wasn’t enough. After losing the
lead within the first five minutes of the game, the Ravens never got
ahead again. Fort Lewis took control and never looked back, leading by
as much as 20 points down the stretch.
“I’m elated at the moment, to say the least,” Kellogg said.
“I’m happiest A, for the kids, but B because we bought into
the game plan that we put together in 24 hours or less, playing against
the kid who scored the most points in Division II I think ever.”
Fort Lewis’s balanced scoring was the key. The Skyhawks were led by
forward Allison Rosel with 22 points, followed by Laura Haugen with 19,
Katie Mackey with 11 and Abby Jackson with ten.
“I’m so proud of the effort; so proud that they bought in and that
that they saw the reward for it,” Kellogg said. “I thought that
offensively, our balance won out.”
After upsetting the second-seeded Ravens, Fort Lewis is now heading to
the championship game on Friday night. Senior Laura Haugen couldn’t be
happier with how her team has performed this season.
“I don’t even know if it’s hit me yet,” Haugen said. “It’s
amazing; we’ve been looking forward to this since day one freshman
year. That was our final goal. We’ve been working so hard through
preseason for four years and all those crappy practices and tough
losses, it’s all paid off.”
Kellogg is also looking forward to the prospect of winning a national
championship in a few short days.
“It’s a little bit of a team of destiny to me right now,” Kellogg
said. “There’s just this will and this want right now with this team
and they’re just not ready to pack it up quite yet. It starts with
those five seniors.”
Haugen agreed that the Skyhawks will leave it all on the floor Friday.
“Our careers are coming to an end and we’ve got to play like it’s
the last time we’re ever going to play,” Haugen said. “We know
that everyone else is going to play the same way – win or go home.”
Emporia State 97 Gannon 94
The second game of Wednesday night to decide the final two teams in the
Women’s Division II Tournament was a match-up between the 37-0 Gannon
Lady Knights and the 25-5 Emporia State Hornets.
The game was back and forth the first half as there were five lead
changes and six times that the score was tied. The biggest lead for the
Lady Knights was just four points in the first 20 minutes, setting the
tone for how the pace of the game was going to be. To end the half
Emporia State was up one point over the Lady Knights.
Gannon came out of the gate being more consistent from the field than
Emporia State. Being 50 percent from the field boosted the Lady Knights
into an early lead, yet Emporia State hit 39.1 percent beyond the arc,
giving them the advantage by one heading into the locker room.
Cassondra Boston, a big scoring threat for Emporia State, shot just
3-11 from the field in the first half. Alli Volkens, also a key player
for the Hornet’s, sat most of the first half due to foul trouble with
two.
Head coach Brandon Schneider for the Emporia State Hornets was very
aware of the lack of focus that his team had in the first half.
“I thought we lost our composure a little bit in the first half,”
Coach Schneider said.
The second half wasn’t any easier for the Hornets, as the number one
ranked Gannon team took an 18 point lead with just 8:45 left to go in
the game.
“Being down 18 was tough but I mean if we could come together and
just be who we know that we can be that we could maybe pull out the
win,” Jamie Augustyn said.
Senior Guard Jamie Augustyn contributed 15 points in the game, hitting
five three point shots to help her Hornet team.
Emporia dropped into a zone defense to try to stop the bleeding that
Gannon had so fiercely enforced with only eight minutes to go in the
game. What happened in the next six minutes was seen as unlikely by
many.
With big shots by senior point guard Cassondra Boston, junior forward
Alli Volkens, and sophomore guard Brittney miller, the hornets had cut
the 18 point deficit and the game was tied with nine seconds left to go
in regulation.
Overtime.
Much like the pace of the first half, the five minutes of overtime was
neck and neck between the two battling teams.
Kristina Freeman, senior guard for Gannon University, tried to keep her
senior season going as she contributed 17 points for her squad.
“The whole game, the big part of my game play was being aggressive.
It could’ve been anybody out there, it just happened to me tonight,”
Freeman said.
Despite Gannon’s confidence as a team, Emporia seemed to play with
more heart and determination, overcoming diversity and getting the ball
into the post, where Volkens could do her job, after sitting out of the
game for most of the first half and playing the majority with four
fouls.
A turning point of the overtime win was two free throws made by senior
guard Lacy Corker to put the team up by two with 21 seconds left to go
in overtime.
The confidence that Emporia had, even when they were down 18, was
apparent with the come back win to get to the championship game.
“Even when we were down 18 there was so much time left on the clock
and we have so many great players on our team that I feel we can always
step up and take over the game.” Corker said.
“It’s a great feeling, I’m still kind of in shock,” Augustyn
said.
