Municipal misery VI

March 07, 2008 12:36 am

— By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Southern’s Municipal Auditorium misery continued Thursday afternoon.
The fourth-seeded Lions, ahead by nine points with eight minutes remaining, scored just 10 points the rest of the game and lost to Northwest Missouri State 74-66 in overtime, the sixth consecutive year Southern has lost in the first round of the MIAA Postseason Tournament.
The Lions (18-10) shot 51 percent from the floor (26-of-51), but they could not overcome 30 turnovers and the Bearcats’ 21 offensive rebounds.
“We threw the game away, literally,” Lions head coach Maryann Mitts said. “Thirty turnovers, seven from our point guard, it’s going to be hard to win a basketball game.
“And the other statistic is their 21 offensive rebounds compared to nine of ours.”
Ela Zawadka’s short jumper gave the Lions a 56-47 advantage with eight minutes left, but on the Lions’ last 13 possessions of regulation, they had seven turnovers and one field goal — Lindsey Davis’ jumper in the middle of the lane — in three attempts.
The Lions made four free throws in the last two minutes — two by Nichole Helfrich for a 60-60 tie with 1:43 left and two by Tynesha Pierce for a 62-61 lead with 28.8 seconds
to play. But 10 seconds later, Pierce fouled out, and Mandi Schumacher made the back end of a two-shot foul to make it 62-62.
Both teams had chances to win the game in regulation, but the Lions’ India Wood missed a 1-and-1 free throw with 17 seconds left, and the Bearcats’ Lauren Williams missed a 10-footer with three seconds left.
In overtime, the Bearcats scored on their first two possessions as Meghan Brue hit a 3-pointer and Schumacher scored on the inside.
The Lions’ struggles continued as they had three turnovers and three missed shots before Robin Kantin’s free throw cut the deficit to 69-63 with 1:26 left. Helfrich’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 11 seconds left was the Lions’ only field goal in overtime and their first in 11 minutes.
“We didn’t do too much differently,” Lions junior guard Danielle DeVader said. “They picked it up a little bit on defense. We just turned the ball over too much, sloppy passes, which they double-team in the post. ... We were back on our heels for a few minutes, and it got them going.”
“Going into overtime, we wanted to get it from the beginning,” Williams said. “We have to get stops, get on a run and get ahead early. We got in our mind we were going to get stops and win the game.”
“We jumped their posts really hard and got a lot of turnovers,” Schumacher said. “They started getting frustrated, and once they got frustrated, that kind of set the mood for the rest of the team. The more irritated we could make them, the better off we would be.”
“One of the things that we have struggled as a basketball team is to fight through adversity,” Mitts said. “And there’s no doubt we had some adversity. ... It’s all about a mindset, and I think Northwest looked at the overtime as ‘Wow, what a great opportunity.’ And I think our kids said ‘Oh, another five minutes.’ That mindset has really hurt us all year. I did not like the feeling going into overtime.”
Schumacher and Williams scored 20 and 18 points, respectively, to lead the Bearcats (15-13). Schumacher also grabbed nine rebounds as the Bearcats dominated the boards 42-33.
Pierce paced the Lions with 14 points, and Wood and DeVader contributed 13 apiece.
The Lions also faced a big disadvantage at the foul line. The Bearcats converted 19-of-33 free throws compared to MSSU’s 7-of-13.
“Make sure you understand this is our fault,” Mitts said.
“The 33 free throw attempts to the 13 we had is a huge problem. You have to be the aggressor, and you have to win the battle at the free-throw line. Although both teams didn’t shoot extremely well, I would have liked for us to be a little more competitive with the number of shots that we got there.”
Foul trouble limited Pierce to 28 minutes, and Fatai Hala’Api’Api played just 14 minutes.
“Their posts are two of their best players,” Schumacher said. “For us, one of our goals was to get them in foul trouble. The longer we can have them on the bench, the more advantage we have inside. We got (Fatai) Hala’Api’Api in foul trouble (with two fouls seconds midway through the first half), and when Pierce got that last foul, I think that was the turning point in the game.”
“Obviously (going against) Mandi Schumacher, you have to have a quality post in there,” Mitts said. “Tynesha Pierce was doing an outstanding job the majority of the game. She offers a little more versatility in the post, and she was able to get around and get a lot of deflections.
“When Tynesha went out of the game, we just didn’t have that athleticism in the post that we needed. We needed to be quicker in the post, and Tynesha was that for us the majority of the game.”
The Bearcats owned a 21-14 lead before the Lions outscored Northwest 22-9 in the last nine minutes of the first half. Wood had 10 points and Pierce six during the run.
“I thought our kids gave a great effort,” Mitts said. “I thought it was a great basketball game. Give Northwest credit for making plays down the stretch, and I didn’t think in the overtime we had quite the fight that Northwest Missouri State had.”

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