Show Lady Bruins make history Jonathan Bonner Sports Editor When the Women's Division I Basketball Championship seeding and schedule was released March 14 the Lady Bruins were deservedly excited The No 20 nationally rank ranked d T Lady L dy Bruins finished the regular season as Scenic West Athletic Conference and Region 18 Champions secured the best record in history and were on their way to the JUCO Blast for the second consecutive year and second time in school history seeded No 10 to faced No 7 Shelton State CC ce in the opening round of Championship play Tuesday March 20 at the Bicentennial Center in Salina Kansas Shelton State entered the tournament with witha a 30 2 record and the Alabama Community College Conference Championship In the teams' teams only other meeting at last years year's National Tournament the Bruins fell to the Bucs 59 Not gunning to be outdone twice the Lady Bruins scored out-scored out- out rebounded and played out-played the while roaring to a whopping 39 13 halftime lead shot 47 percent from the field and held the Bucs to a dismal 17 percent showing in the opening half Michelle Pace and Katie King each hit the figure double-figure mark by the half with Pace dropped inI in 13 I points and King adding History Continued on page 6 Making History Continued from Tom page 1 14 4 run didn didn't t letup let letup letup up in the second half as the Bruins b built Ut their lead to as many as 37 points and ended the game with the 74 47 blowout The Bruins' Bruins tenacity in the paint frustrated the B Bucs Buc taller post players and closed the game with a 46 24 scoring advantage King finished the game with 16 points and 9 rebounds to lead the Bruins Mulford put on a ashow ashow ashow show with 13 points six assists and four boards Pace finished with 13 points poin ts all in the first half Breanne Law and Atta added 10 points each Following their first ever national tournament win had only one day to prepare for No 2 Seward County Community College The Saints dressing just seven players due to injuries expended a tremendous of energy in their first round defeat of the Walters State Lady Senators and the Bruins entered the contest with every hope of using that to their advantage On the first play of the game Mulford was fouled on a three-point three attempt and followed follo of 3 from the charity stripe The Saints countered with witha a up lay-up and Mulford fired back with a three-pointer three to s' s on n a 13 3 run Michelle Pace was able to contain the Saints Saints' American All-American forward Tegan Cunningham for nearly four minutes but Cunningham sprung loose to score 20 points in the first half Americans TheAll-American's effort brought the Saints back to tie the game and seemingly secure a 45 42 lead at the half However Keshia Catten couldn't be contained and drained her third three of the half to tie the ball game at 45 going into the locker room The Bruins opened the second half by scoring two straight buckets but struggled to find the mark and trailed by as many as 12 points With remaining in the game Katie King dropped in two of her 12 points point to rally the Bruins within ten A 9 0 run run brought the Bruins back to within one at I I I to go Mulford's attempt at a three couldn't find the basket but the Bruins corralled the rebound and called a timeout seconds left and Catten missed missed another three-point three attempt and the Bruins had to begin fouling Down 82 79 and with possession of the ball was tied up for a jump ball with less than 10 seconds remaining With controlling possession the Bruins were forced to foul again and dropped the heartbreaker 78 Mulford led the Lady Bruins with 21 points 15 of which came from behind the arc Pace and Catten each added 13 points King notched nine points and 12 2 rebounds while Amy finished with nine ninepoints ninepoints ninepoints points and eight boards Cunningham led Seward with 27 points and 20 rebounds Still in the running for a atop atop atop top five JUCO Blast finish drew a No 5 seed and faced the No 6 Lady Indians of Chipola Junior College in the elimination bracket Facing the seasons season's end the Bruins didn't score until nearly two minutes into the contest Neither team found much rhythm in the first half as each shot nearly 30 percent from the field and tallied eight missed free throws The Bruins trailed 27 27 18 18 at the half Each team traded buckets to open the second half as the Bruins failed to find findan findan an answer in containing the scoring of the Lady Indians After a Michelle Pace up lay-up dropped the Bruins failed to score for a full five minutes until Krista Farr FaIT drained a three-pointer three with I 24 left in the game With the score 5 51 39 I 39 in favor of the Lady Indians Mulford drained another three and Farr FaIT dropped in one more trey in a final attempt to pull the game closer However the game ended with a Chipola win ending the Bruins stellar season at 28 The women played their hearts out but came up short in a season-ending season loss to Chipola 53 In her final career game as a Bruin Mulford was the only player to reach figures double-figures with I 11 I 1 points and six rebounds Katie King closed out outher outher outher her junior college career with four points and three rebounds Breanne Lawand Lawand Law Lawand and Atta bid adieu as well Law posted six points and grabbed two rebounds while notched seven points and two boards Amy rounded out the Bruin sophomore club and got gother gother gother her hands on four rebounds in her final Bruin The 2007 2006 season marked the most wins forhead for forhead forhead head coach Betsy and the farthest any Bruin women's basketball team has advanced in season post son play |