The Women’s Basketball season came to a close last week after the Tigers battled Dordt University to a tough loss in the quarterfinals of the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships. Despite the loss, there was still a massive achievement for one of the Tigers.
The Tigers got off to a slow start against the Defenders. The first quarter saw Dordt jump out to an early lead as they were out-performing the Tigers in three-point shooting and rebounding. After the first 10 minutes, Doane trailed 14-19.
Things did not start to pick up for the Tigers in the second quarter either. Dordt was consistent with their shooting and added another 19 points to their total. The Defender defense limited the Tigers to just 12 points and Doane was behind 26-38 at the half.
Coming out of halftime, there was a momentum shift for Doane as they almost doubled their points in this quarter alone. Part of this shift was due to junior Mak Hatcliff scoring her 2,000 career point, taking only 88 games to get there. Hatcliff finished the game with 2,013 career points, putting her first on the all time scoring charts for Women’s Basketball.
At the end of the third quarter, the Tigers were still trailing 49-59. Despite a late push from the Tigers, who had their most successful quarter in the fourth, the Defenders held strong and would go on to beat Doane 85-75.
The Women’s Basketball team finishes their season with a 16-13 record overall, going 11-11 in conference play.
In the second half, Briar Cliff saw their biggest lead of 25 points, which the Tigers would spend the rest of the game cutting down. Despite outscoring the Chargers 157, the Tigers could not complete the comeback and fell 64-81.
Both Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams return home this week to take on Concordia University on February 14 before hosting Morningside University on February 17.