‘New’ Tabor team rolls to three straight victories

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
What a difference a week makes. And a few additional players, too.


After dropping their first two games of the season, the Tabor women’s team finally welcomed its fall sport athletes and promptly rolled to three straight wins, including a 79-51 thumping Monday of Newman University, a team that had beaten them by 13 points Nov. 7.


Newman jumped to a 4-0 lead, but Tabor came back with a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. The Jays led by as many as 33 points late in the second half.


Angela Kroeker, one of those fall athletes to joint the team, lead Tabor with 18 points. Tami Jons and Janea Rademacher each added 9.


Mid-America Nazarene-A 17-4 run to start the second half paved the way for the Tabor women’s 78-64 win over Mid-America Nazarene Saturday night in Hillsboro.


The Bluejays pulled to within a point of the Pioneers at intermission on a bucket by Susan Carter with three seconds to play. Mid-America had led by eight points, 42-34, three minutes earlier.


Coming out of the locker room, the Jays played aggressively on both ends of the court. A bucket by Meaghan Coe 27 seconds into the half put Tabor up by a point, 47-46, and the Jays never relinquished the lead.


Aggressive full-court pressure from Tabor’s “second wave” off the bench pushed the margin to 18, 72-54, with 6:47 to go. At times, the frustrated Pioneers struggled even to get the ball inbounds.


“I’m trying to run a mid-court press, but they’re so aggressive that it turns into a full-court press-which is good as long as it works,” Rigby said about her team.


The Pioneers finally regained some composure and put together a 9-0 run, cutting the lead in half with 3:40 to play.


But Tabor’s defense stiffened down the stretch and kept the Pioneers at bay.


The Bluejays shot 50 percent from the floor, and had four players in double figures. Susan Carter led the way with 14, Janea Rademacher added 12, Meaghan Coe 11 and Holly Ross 10.


Forty-eight of the Bluejay points come from nonstarters.


Defensively, the hustling Bluejays kept the Pioneers under 38 percent shooting-a cool 25 percent in the second half-and forced 28 turnovers, 18 in the second half.


But Tabor also committed 28 turnovers as both teams had trouble protecting the ball.


Northwestern-Coach Chanda Rigby said this may have been the game that will turn around the “losing train” for Tabor College women’s basketball.


The Bluejays withstood challenges from Northwestern Oklahoma State on the Rangers’ home floor, but led from start to finish en route to an emotional 69-58 win Wednesday night in Alva, Okla.


“The speech before the game was about when a train is going in one direction, it’s easy to keep it going,” Rigby said. “That was our focal point: Someone is going to have to throw themselves in front of the train and stop it. Then, when we get it going the other direction, it’ll be easy to keep it going.


“It was so emotional because this happened to be the game that might set the precedent for the rest of the year. The players now believe they can do it.”


Tiffany George’s free throw in the first minute of the game gave the the Bluejays a lead they never relinquished.


“From what the seniors said, that’s the first time in their time here they did that,” Rigby said.


The Jays led 30-22 at half.


Joining the team for this game were three volleyball players from Hillsboro: Tesha Werth, Carmen Hein and Angela Kroeker. Rigby used the trio, who combined for 19 points and eight steals, as role players, especially on defense.


“They took it and said, ‘This is our role,'” Rigby said. “‘We’re going to be in there for five minutes, this is what we’re supposed to do, and we’ll do it to the best of our ability.’ Whatever we asked them to do, they did it.”


Susan Carter led the Bluejays with 16 points, including 10 in the second half, on 7-for-11 shooting. Kroeker finished with 11 points and George 10.


Melissa Carpenter led the Rangers with 19 points. But the Bluejay defense kept Northwestern under 33 percent for the game, including a dismal 1-17 from behind the arc.


A total of 92 fouls were called during the game-48 on Tabor, 44 on Northwestern. By game’s end, five Bluejays were riding the pine: Werth, Jeanae Rademacher, Katherine Klepper, Carter, and Meaghan Coe.


Rigby savored not only her first win as Tabor’s coach, but her first as a college coach.


“It was emotional,” she said. “It was my first college win, and it seems like I’ve been waiting for it and preparing for it all my life.”


Coming-The Bluejays will travel to Hays on Saturday to take on Fort Hays State at 6 p.m. Their next game will be Thursday, Nov. 30, when they host McPherson to open KCAC play. Game time is 6 p.m.

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