ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
The Tabor women got sweet revenge on the Ottawa Braves as they avenged an earlier season 20 point loss with a narrow 60-56 win Thursday night in Hillsboro.
Tabor jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and still led 34-24 at halftime on the strength of 11 first half points by Erica Hemmert.
After Hemmert added a 3-point basket early in the second half, Tabor owned a 15 point lead.
But Ottawa fought back and cut the Tabor lead to just three points at 57-54 with 1:20 to play, but two timely free throws by Trixsi Odom pushed the lead back to five points with just 33 seconds to play and the Bluejays held on for the 60-56 win.
Hemmert led Tabor with 17 points, nine rebounds, and three assists in the contest. Freshman Donya Anderson added 11 points for Tabor who improved to 9-6 in the KCAC and 15-10 overall.
The Tabor men won their game 59-51, but had to overcome horrendous free throw shooting in the game to do it.
The Bluejays hit just 15 of 32 charity tosses in the game for 46.9 percent, but luckily their defense carried them to the win.
The Bluejays looked sharp in the first half as they bolted to a 32-20 halftime lead.
They also led by 15 points early in the second stanza before cold shooting by the Bluejays enabled Ottawa to cut into the Tabor lead, at one point cutting their deficit to just five points at 43-38 with 8:12 to play in the game.
But the Bluejays hung on, aided once again by their defense and rebounding prowess to preserve the 59-51 win.
Tabor was led in scoring by Anthony Monson who had 16 points.
But it was Tyson Ratzlaff who shone for the second straight game as the senior scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and added five steals to his line.
Tabor won the rebounding battle 39-25 paced by Ratzlaff and Jeremiah Randall with nine each.
The Bluejays hit on 46.7 percent of their shots while limiting Ottawa to only 37 percent for the game.
With the win, Tabor maintains their spot on top of the KCAC with a 12-3 conference record while improving to 12-13 overall.
Bluejays exact revenge on Braves
