DUBUQUE, Iowa (Duhawks.com) - The Loras College Women's Basketball team welcomed the Luther College Norse to the Athletic & Wellness Center on Wednesday, hungry for their third straight win. Seventeen points by junior
Kaitlin Phillips and a game-high 16 rebounds by sophomore
Lori Obendorf were not enough to overcome 21 turnovers as the Duhawks fell 73-72.
Sophomore
Lori Obendorf won the opening tip but the Norse (18-4, 8-3 IIAC) won the first half. Luther's full court press frazzled the Duhawk guards and forced them to play to the speedy tempo set by the Norse.
The full court press served as a double edged sword for the Norse, forcing the Duhawks into turnovers while also putting themselves in foul trouble early. Junior
Kaitlin Phillips and senior
Carly Goede attacked the Luther defense, accounting for five fouls in the first four minutes.
Drawing fouls ultimately kept the Duhawks within reach in the opening frame, shooting 11-of-13 from the line. Conversely, Loras held the Norse without a free throw in the first 20 minutes of play.
Despite a strong performance from the line, Luther's eight 3-pointers gave them a 38-34 edge at the break.
A shaky start on the offensive end pushed the Duhawks deficit to double digits with 14 minutes to play.
Over the course of the next eight minutes, Loras' pick and roll game propelled them to a 23-8 run, and a seven point lead with 5:53 to play.
The Norse responded with seven straight points, leveling the score at 69.
Moments later Luther took a one point lead on a three-pointer by Anna Madrigal.
Trailing by one with 9.4 seconds to play, the Duhawks had possession with an opportunity to stun the Norse. Loras worked the ball inside where the Luther defense collapsed, forcing a three second call in the lane.
With the turnover Luther regained possession. Following a foul call, Luther retained possession but failed to get a clean inbounds pass giving the Duhawks one final shot with 1.4 seconds to play.
Without a timeout, the Duhawks inbounded the ball to Phillips. A clean catch allowed Phillips to get a shot off but it fell short, as did the Loras comeback, as they fell 73-72.
Game ChangerWith less than 10 seconds to play and the game within reach, a costly turnover by the Duhawks gave the Norse possession with 4.7 seconds to play.
Key StatThe Duhawks committed 21 turnovers while forcing the Norse into seven. Luther cashed in the Duhawk miscues for 17 points while Loras mustered just seven points off turnovers.
Notables- Wednesday marked the eighth time this season Loras committed more than 20 turnovers
- Lori Obendorf collected four blocks, putting her at 55 for the season
- Sophomore Kat Cabrera returned to the starting lineup after recovering from injury
Quotable
Carly Goede, senior guard"I think they wanted us to play fast and once we figured out how to break the press we slowed them down. Then, we had a really big run where we were making the extra pass and we played really well together as a team for about seven minutes there and we got back in the game."
Justin Heinzen, head coach"Longing is really good off the ball screen and a lot of their guards are and we struggled with that for most of the game until the four-minute mark when we started contesting their ball screen. Even when we went on a big run, they were still getting the shots they wanted and just weren't hitting them."
Up NextThe Duhawks close out the home portion of their regular season schedule on Saturday. Loras is set to tackle the Coe College Kohawks in the Athletic & Wellness Center at 4 p.m. while celebrating the careers of the Duhawk seniors.?
