It was a good game for 35 minutes as the Lady Bees executed an almost flawless defense against tenth ranked the Bishop Gaiters. What wrong could be said about the 14-team steals including the four by guard Pascale Morin? In fact, Morin confidently scored 21 and teammate Guard M.J. Raposo tallied 15 of her own.
Oh, right—there are 40 minutes to play in every game!
With five minutes remaining head coach Keith Pruden felt a tiny twinge in his stomach. “It was like the team decided that the game was already won,” he said. “Here…if you want the game come and get it Bishops.”
The women’s basketball team did win the game 60-56, but it was agony to watch them almost disintegrate.
Both teams came out in the first half playing sluggish turnover-basketball.
Bishops made the most of their early turnovers. Concordia, however, missed almost every lay up and missed many second chance lay-ups.
Guard Tonya Monuma kept Concordia in the game with two trays, and it was the energetic Nicole Demetris crashing the boards at 6:30 who sparked the team.
By the ten minute mark the Concordia team had settled down and began to show more patience, utilizing a half court press and some outstanding hustle on defense.
This is Pruden’s hallmark style of play–the defense will create the offense.
At half time the Stingers had a 38-23 lead.
A lack of defense will also stymie an offense!
Pruden could not reply to the sudden mental change on defense he saw his team experience in the second half. “Maybe it was being over-confident or maybe it was the overenthusiastic passing?” All Pruden could do was shrug.
Whatever it was, the Stingers went from an effective and suppressive half court press to a panic filled full-court press as the Gaiters came within three points with seconds remaining.
Rosie Mendez-Douglas hit one of two foul shots to give the team a 60-56 lead and a bit of breathing room.
Bishops needed to sink a long three pointer and get fouled and then hit the shot. It didn’t happen.
But to see how the game reached this point maybe we better rewind the clock. The real story here is what happened with five minutes remaining in a game that was for the most part controlled by the Stingers.
It all began with foul trouble. The Stingers were leading 52-43 with 5:19 remaining when they reached the foul limit.
This didn’t help the Stinger cause. The Gaiters also began an aggressive full court press.
“You tell me if the press worked,” said Pruden. “We turned the ball over 11 times in the second half and you cannot expect to control a game like that.”
Bishops could have easily won this game if they had capitalized on the turnovers.
The finishing touch was a problem for them all game, and if it wasn’t for a Jennifer Neil sweet inbounds base to Raposo who scored an easy lay-up the outcome could have been different.
Now leading 54-49 with 58 ticks left, the game should have been tucked away and filed. Or so it seemed.
Mendez-Douglas forced a turnover and was fouled. She hit both bonus shots. Bishops countered by hitting one of two foul shots. Then Pascale Morin was fouled on her way to the basket and promptly nailed the two following fouls shots, boosting the score to 56-50.
But suddenly Bishops Guard Carly Clarke came out of nowhere.
Clarke, like the rest of her team, was having a bad day from the three-point line. In fact, Bishops went two for 14 as outstanding shooters Amelie Rousseau, Anouk Boulanger and Clarke seemed to have taken a hiatus.
It didn’t matter at this point. Clarke promptly got in position behind the line and nailed a three to silence the crowd. Heads turned and looked up at the clock: 56-53.
“I knew Bishops had come within three,” said Roposo. “I just had to take a look at the clock to let it sink in.”
After a missed lay-up attempt by Concordia, Bishops came right back and drove hard to the basket but Mendez-Douglas blocked the lay up and Morin yanked in the loose ball and was immediately fouled. She went to the line and hit her two shots.
Bishops Guard Carly Clarke just went straight to the Concordia basket and was fouled, and hit one of two. Raposo would not be left out and hit one of two also with 16 seconds left.
So the game is down to 16 seconds with the Stingers leading 59-54. A five point lead with 16 seconds remaining is usually enough to cap a win, right?
Toss in an eight footer by Bishops to slide closer, 59-56. The inbounds pass went right to Mendez-Douglas, who was immediately fouled with five seconds remaining.
Bishops has several good three-point shooters so Mendez-Douglas needed at least one of two. She hit the first and missed her second attempt. But Bishops never got pass half court after that, and the Stingers collectively breathe in a sigh of relief.
Pascale Morin, who was all over this game with 21 points, three rebounds and four steals, would have preferred a different outcome. “I would have liked to seen more consistency in our play,” she said. “We had it in our minds that we had already won and that is when our defense began to weaken.”
The Stingers will break for Christmas but will be back to host the Concordia Invitational tournament starting Dec. 29.
