Tabor men knock off Coyotes; women suffer 70-44 loss

Written by Katie Morford Saturday, 28 January 2012 22:15

The Tabor men found their stride again tonight after a tough road loss Thursday, downing Kansas Wesleyan, 87-75, after trailing by four at the half. Strong forward Ryan Chippeaux put up a team-high 21 points, despite getting in foul trouble early and sitting out much of the first half. 

The women struggled early against the Coyotes and never really threatened, trailing by as much as 35 points in the second half before sophomore Hannah Paust scored 12 points in nine minutes to give Tabor the final 70-44 margin. 

MEN - Both teams were hot out of the gate, with the Bluejays going up 7-2 in the first two minutes, but KWU coming right back to tie it up. 

The battle was on as each team traded the lead and tied it up five more times in the remainder of the half. Ryan Chippeaux proved a post threat early in the game, before picking up two fouls and being benched the rest of the first half. The Bluejays were fairly strong from beyond the arc, with Joe Penn scoring twice from three-point range and Lawson Kingsley and Cody Arnold swishing at least one each in the first half.

With 3:15 remaining in the half Michael Janzen found the basket to make the score 26-26, but the Coyotes got the edge on the back-and-forth battle as the clock wound down, putting up six unanswered points in the last three minutes before Kyle Wallace drove to the basket to make it 32-28, KWU, at the break.

The Bluejays practically seared a trail out of the locker room in the second half, blazing their way to 14 back-to-back points in the first three minutes of play. Chippeaux came off the bench to put up eight of those points, including a dunk, and and Kingsley scored from beyond the arc and on a fade-away in the paint to help Tabor out-score the Coyotes, 14-2. 

KWU rallied to gain a 12-10 scoring edge in the next four minutes, but Kingsley drove to the basket at 12:34 to make it 54-48. Unfortunately for Tabor, the senior injured his ankle shortly after and did not return to the game. 

But the bench had things well in hand, as Arnold sank another three-pointer a couple minutes later and Janzen scored off a steal at 7:27 to give Tabor their first double-digit lead of the game, 56-67. Arnold and Wallace drained threes within 1:22 of each other, bringing Tabor up to 77-62. 

Chippeaux closed out the game for the Bluejays, adding six points to Phillip Jimenez' three-pointer in the final three minutes of play time to give Tabor the eight-point margin of victory. 

WOMEN - The Bluejays went up, 4-3, in the first three minutes of play, but then let KWU escape with 10 unanswered points before Whitney Frise found the basket from three-point range at 9:50 to make it 13-6. 

The Coyotes went on to score four times from beyond the arc in the next four minutes, going up 27-13 despite two three-pointers from Katlyn Mary. The 'Jays continued to struggle against a high-powered KWU offense and to penetrate their defense. KWU out-scored Tabor, 12-7, in the last 4:40 of the half to lead, 39-20, at the break.

KWU ran away with the Bluejays in the second half, putting up 31 points to Tabor's 24. The Coyotes took their biggest lead of the night at 9:11, topping the the Bluejays by 35 points, 62-27. 

Hannah Paust heated up in the last nine minutes of play to score 12 points and go 8-8 at the line, but it was not enough to overcome such a large deficit and KWU cruised to the victory. In addition to Paust's 12 points, Mary also made double digits with 14 points, finding the basket four times from three-point range.