December 29, 2000

TU scratchs out a win over Hillsdale

By Matt Steiner
Sports Writer

Hillsdale came out bombing, but didn't have enough fire power to take out the Tiffin Dragons.

A flurry of first half 3-pointers by the Chargers left TU scratching its way back for most of the game. But with just seconds on the clock, freshman point guard Katie McBroom drove the lane for the game-winning basket, improving the Dragons' record to 6-4.

"Tiffin's intensity was better than ours at crunch time," Hillsdale head coach Dana Munk said. "They hit big shots. Our kids created some great looks and couldn't get it and couldn't get a rebound. We did not match Tiffin's intensity and the result is we lose."

The Dragons led for just 3:46 of the first 39:30 of the game Thursday.

After Hillsdale tied the game at 66 with 30 seconds to go, TU came out of a timeout and inbounded the ball to McBroom just inside halfcourt. The freshman made a move to her right, stopped in her tracks and spun back to the left, leaving the defender helpless. She accelerated the remaining 20 feet to the basket and laid in the ball for the 68-66 lead, leaving just 7.5 ticks left.

Munk called two consecutive timeouts. One came after McBroom's make and another with 3.7 seconds remaining after Hillsdale crossed halfcourt. The last stoppage was to set up a play off a sideline inbound-pass, which Munk favored.

"If I had to do it over, I'd bet my house on it," she said. "I would run the same thing. It just didn't go down."

Stephanie Heid, who finished with 13 points, came off a screen just like the coach drew it up. The ball was inbounded to her and Heid launched a jump shot from the left wing. But the ball rattled out and TU came away with what coach Leslie Mugg called a "huge win."

"It's a big win because Hillsdale's a very good Division II team," Mugg said. "We need all the wins we can get with Division II teams going into our conference play. I didn't want to lose and go into conference play feeling a little down. We had two crummy practices before this game. I was upset with (the team) and they knew it."

Hillsdale seemed in control for much of the game. TU led 4-3 just one minute into the game, but the Chargers hit their second and third triples of the game to jump out, 9-4. Tiffin fought back to tie it at 19 and take the lead, 23-21.

But Hillsdale ended the first 20 minutes with an 18-9 run and a 39-32 halftime lead.

"I don't know how many games we've been down early in the first half," Tiffin's leading scorer Laura Goins said. "We just have a good mindset and come out strong in the second half. We're really confident. We've been saying all year that we don't want to lose at home. We want to defend our house. We came out kind of sluggish in the beginning and we just wanted to prove ourselves in the second half."

It took a little while for the offense to get on track after the intermission, but the defense was up to the task, holding the Chargers to just seven points in the first 6:30 of the second half.

Then Goins came alive. She did it all, defense, rebounding, passing and scoring.

With the score at 47-41, TU went on a 9-3 mini-run with Goins scoring all nine. She hit a running jumper from the right wing, scored on another from the left baseline, added a drive from the right side, and drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to tie the game at 50 with 9:26 left.

"I know my teammates follow what other people do," Goins said. "I wanted to be the one to go out and hustle so they'd know how bad I wanted to win."

But Hillsdale responded and took the lead back at the 7:57 mark (52-51).

Tiffin's stretch run was fueled by three chances at three-point plays. Jacki Swaisgood had two in the post and Goins tried one after being fouled on a jumper in the lane.

Swaisgood split hers and Goins couldn't convert the foul shot.

"It could have been a little bit more of a cushion if we hit our free throws," Mugg said. "It seemed like we could never convert the three-point play with our free throws. We're struggling with that and I don't know how, because we've worked so hard on free throws."

The missed foul shots set up the last second dramatics by McBroom while the made field goals provided the Dragons some adrenaline for the final seconds, but it wasn't the offense that gave them the chance to win.

"Our defense held up pretty strong," Mugg said. "It was definitely our defense and rebounding in the second half. We had people rebounding who normally don't rebound and that helped."

Goins led all scorers with 28, including 4-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. She was also one of the unlikely rebounders with nine.

Swaisgood and Nicki King each helped out with 11 points for TU.

Heid, Erin Dowd and Amanda Vriesenga had 13 apiece for Hillsdale and Mary Wiesen scored 12. Dowd led the Chargers with 10 rebounds.