It was a tough weekend in Texas for Colorado College women’s basketball. Some strong quarters just weren’t enough to bag the Tigers a win.
On Jan.15, the team took on University of Dallas who quickly gained the lead over the Tigers. Their biggest lead was 64-24 with only 35 seconds left in the third quarter, but the Tigers didn’t give up even against such a large deficit. Junior guard Christina Bowman made a jump shot in the last 20 seconds of the third quarter, spurring the team on for the final quarter. In the last 10:20 minutes of the game, the Tigers had a 22-5 run.
“The biggest thing in that fourth quarter is that we played a lot of our young kids,” said Head Coach Liz Doran. “It was mostly freshmen during that time. And they just go out and play; they just get after it. They really competed hard without regard for what the scoreboard was at that moment. That competitive spirit is something that we’ve been inconsistent with through the season.”
Freshman guard Kaylyn Radke had a career first when she led the team in scoring with a total of eight points. All eight points were scored in that energized fourth quarter.
“We really turned it on in the final quarter with a different combination of players in the game, said Radke. “The scoring run was definitely spurred by energy on defence. We were able to get some steals which allowed us to get some great offensive looks on our end. We definitely came together as a team in the fourth quarter.”
Freshman Jessica Savage had the last four points of the run with a jumper and two free throws.
The game ended with Dallas winning 69-46.
The team was right back at it the next day, going up against Austin College. This time, the Tigers started strong. They held a 6-2 lead after scoring a pair of three-pointers in the first 43 seconds of the game. Senior Korbyn Ukasick scored one and Bowman scored the other.
“In the Austin game we came out a lot better,” said Doran. “We started the game, we made some shots, and we played really aggressive defence. We came out with some fire. We came out with some fight. And that was really good to see. At the end of the day, Austin was just better than us. They made more shots than we did through the course of the ball game.”
Ukasick led the Tigers in scoring for the day with 14 points. The game remained close for most of the first quarter. But by the end, Austin had pulled into the lead, 19-14. In the next quarter, Austin extended their lead. The game went into halftime with Austin winning 45-26.
“One of our point guards had some fouls early on and the other one got injured early on and so she was out for the game,” said Bowman. “It was an unexpected thing and we kind of faltered there.”
Senior Katie Waters led the Tigers through a 10-5 run, contributing six points and narrowing the deficit in the third quarter but that was as close as the Tigers got.
Austin, who is undefeated in the SCAC, finished the game 76-51.
Colorado College’s record dropped to 2-15 overall and 1-5 in the SCAC.
“It’s been a rough season but each weekend is a new weekend, and each game is a new game,” said Bowman.
The team travels back to Texas this weekend to play two more conference members, Texas Lutheran University and Southwestern University.
“TLU, the team we play on Friday, is usually pretty good at home, they do a good job protecting their home court, said Doran. “So embracing that underdog role and just trying to wreck their Friday night is the message that we’ll take into that game.”