Waldorf women split pair of games in Hawaii
By Chris Todd
Of The Summit
HONOLULU, Hawaii - Sarah Swanson is starting to hit her stride for the Waldorf College women's basketball team after missing her sophomore season due to injury.
Swanson scored 28 points and pulled down ten rebounds here last Friday in an overtime loss to Campbellsville, Kent., then scored 20 points and picked off eight rebounds in a win Saturday over Minot State University of North Dakota.
“Sarah had a good weekend, and our team did as well,” said Waldorf coach Denny Jerome via cell phone from Hawaii, where the team is competing in the Hoop ‘n Surf Classic.
“Some of our starters are starting to get into midseason form and as a team, we're playing much better than we had been earlier in the season.”
The Warriors will return from their Christmas break having won three of their last four games.
Early on vs. Campbellsville, the Waldorf women looked to put a quick win on the board. They led 45-30 with 1 minute, 55 seconds left in the first half, and led by 15 at the break.
The Warriors led by 12 at 64-52 with 11 minutes, 33 seconds left in the second half, but couldn't hang on. Campbellsville went on a 23-9 run over the next ten minutes to take a 75-73 lead with 2:47 left.
Just one more basket was scored the rest of the way, and that was a two-point shot by Waldorf's Ali March with 1:40 left to put the game into overtime.
Waldorf had a chance to win in the waning seconds of regulation, but missed on jump shots by Mollie Franzen and Rachel Hannam.
In the overtime period, Kate Milbrandt knocked down a three-point shot to give Waldorf a 78-77 lead less than a minute into overtime.
But Campbellsville came back strong, going on a 13-2 run to take an 89-80 lead with just 1:14 left.
“We had a tough time stopping them in the second half and in the overtime period,” said Jerome. “But it was a quality game for us against a very strong opponent.”
Milbrandt complemented Swanson's 28-point performance with 20 points of her own. Eighteen of those were from six three-point shots made by the senior point guard.
“Kate's been shooting the ball better of late, which our whole team has done the last three or four games,” Jerome said.
Waldorf freshman Aubrey Draves added 16 points, while four other Warrior players finished with four points.
Against Minot State Saturday in Honolulu, the Warriors were tied at 32 at the half but outscored Minot 35-29 in the second half for the win.
“Minot was another good team,” added Jerome. “They had beaten Briar Cliff by 20 points, which was a team that we lost to early in the season. It shows some of the improvement we've been making.”
The Warriors were led by some balanced scoring. Megan Forster finished with 21 points after sitting out Friday's game with a slight leg injury. She pulled down nine rebounds and added two assists.
Swanson finished with 20 points and nearly pulled off a double double for the second consecutive night, adding eight rebounds. Hannam came back with a strong game, scoring 14 points with five boards and five steals.
Story created Dec 23, 2008 - 14:30:08 CST.
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