Box Score
The LumberJills continued their southern California road trip, playing the SCIAC defending champions tonight. The Jills trailed 34-29 at halftime but struggled to score in the beginning of the second half, as the Leopards outscored Northland 18-8 over the first 10 minutes of the second stanza to take a commanding lead that the Jills could not overcome. The final score was 71-55 and the loss dropped the Jills to 2-5 on the season.
Northland fell behind 8-0 in the first two minutes but after a quick timeout climbed back into the game at 8-5. The Jills bounced from a 1 to 9 point deficit for the remainder of the half, but could never get the lead. Lindsey Hamm made the last two baskets of the half, including the last one with four seconds to go to get the Jills to 34-29 at halftime. "We played a solid first half," said Dan Roiger, the Jills head coach. "We didn't shoot the ball very well, but we played well and kept ourselves in the game." Northland shot 13 of 33 in the first half, but only 3 of 10 from the arc, and had a number of wide open shots but couldn't make the shots."
The Jills actually shot better in the second half, making 11 of 25 shots, but had 13 turnovers which led to 14 Leopard points. The Jills struggled with the attacking LaVerne guards, and for the first 10 minutes only made 4 of 13 shots. After that the Jills were 7 of 12, but for every Northland basket, LaVerne had an answer. Trenneca Jones, who was the SCIAC Player of the Year last season, had 23 points on 11 of 15 shooting to lead the Leopards. "We knew she was going to be good," said Coach Roiger, "but she was even better than expected. To be honest, that's the best women's basketball I've coached against in my seven years at the college level. She was the real deal."
Northland's lone star was point guard Lindsey Hamm (Jr., Ontanagon, MI), who finished with 19 points on 8-11 shooting. Hamm also led the team with three assists, whiel junior Mel Waytashek (Little Falls, MN) led the team with six rebounds. Northland outrebounded the Leopards 35-32 and had two more assists on seven less baskets, but took fewer shots because of more turnovers, and LaVerne, led by Jones, shot more than 50% for the game.
"We just have to keep battling," said Coach Roiger. "We still haven't been able to play consistently this year but we keep striving for it. Our kids are playing hard, but we are not playing well. We are making too many mental mistakes right now and it is really our veteran players who are not playing up to their potential. I know it is an incredibly tough schedule, but we are still not playing well." The Jills are 0-2 on their trip and play the host school California Lutheran tomorrow at 7 pm CST. The game will be broadcast live on kadytv.com and also audio casted on Northland's webcast.