The Tabor men scored 20 points in double-overtime tonight to survive conference opponent Friends University, 87-78. The women fell, 61-52, in their 10th game this season they’ve lost by 10 points or less. The men’s win puts them at 8-10 overall and 4-3 in conference play, and the women’s loss leaves them at 3-14 and 1-6. The Bluejays are scheduled to hit the road Saturday to take on rival Sterling College, with tip-off at 5 p.m. for the women’s game and 7 p.m. for the men’s.
Men – The Falcons set the Bluejays back on their heels out of the gate, taking a quick 12-4 lead with a three-pointer at 14:41 over a Tabor team struggling to shoot the ball. But, as has happened many times before this season, senior Lawson Kingsley provided the spark to the offensive engine, draining back-to-back three-pointers to put Tabor right back in the game. Dylan Clark-Knaeble found the basket inside at 5:45 to tie the game for the second time, then just over a minute later to give Tabor their first lead, 23-21. Kingsley followed it up with three to seal the deal, and the Bluejays pulled away to a 34-26 lead at the break.
Tabor returned after halftime to maintain at least a comfortable 10-point lead for the first 12 minutes of the second half. The win appeared to be in the bag for the ‘Jays. But Friends came roaring back with 14 unanswered points in the next three-and-a-half minutes of play time. They took a 54-53 lead with four minutes left on the clock. Janzen and Penn hit free throws to tie it up twice and send the game into overtime.
Janzen scored on a long jump shot at 3:26 to give the Bluejays a 61-59 lead, but the game would be tied twice more before Penn drained a three-point shot to put Tabor up, 67-65, with 29 seconds remaining in overtime. But the showdown was not over, as the Falcons scored to send the game into double overtime.
But the Bluejays were finished with the back-and-forth contest, blazing their way to 20 points in the double overtime. Kyle Wallace led the effort with eight points, but Chippeaux had six points and was a beast on the glass and defensively. The Bluejays steadily pulled away from Friends for the 12-point margin of victory.
It was truly a team win for Tabor, with six players in double digits and the Bluejays getting 30 points off the bench. Clark-Knaeble scored 16 points before fouling out in double overtime, Penn had 13 points and Kyle Wallace put up 12 points. Chippeaux earned the double-double with 12 points and 16 rebounds and Kingsley and Janzen each contributed 10 points to the offensive effort. The Bluejays had size on their side, helping them to out-rebound Friends by a sizable 50-37 margin and earn 16 second-chance points to the Falcon’s six. They also had six more points from beyond the arc than Friends.
Overall, the hard-fought contest saw eight ties and nine lead changes.
Women – Despite a strong start, the Bluejays looked a bit beat up tonight in their 61-52 defeat. Tabor went neck-and-neck with Friends for the first fourteen minutes of play time, but then the Falcons drained two three-pointers within seconds of each other, giving them ma 22-19 lead with just under five minutes left in the half. Friends went on to out-score Tabor, 14-5, in the last four minutes remaining for a 36-24 lead at the break.
Friends continued to draw away in the second half, putting themselves on top by 17 points, 55-38, with 6:34 left in the game. The Bluejays rallied toward the end of the game, with Hannah Paust, Katlyn Mary and Molly Dick scoring a combined 14 points in the last six minutes of the game. Their offensive efforts drew them within nine points, but ultimately the damage had been done and the clock ran out on the Bluejays.
Tabor once again received a strong performance from their underclassmen, with freshman Dick soaring to 18 points to lead the Bluejays in scoring and Paust earning the double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. The Bluejays out-rebounded the Falcons, 44-35, and made 16 of 19 attempts at the line, but Friends simply found ways to put more balls in the hole for the win.
