By Kara Giesbrecht

Victory for Briercrest remained within reach until the last minutes where Briercrest landed on the downside of 61-77 due to a lack of mental toughness.

The Briercrest women opposed the King’s University College in a showdown where one basket was often the only thing separating the Clippers from grabbing the lead.

Briercrest was patient putting points up, allowing King’s the first three points from free throws. Meghan Friesen opened up the score for Briercrest and Amy Wanvig followed suit. Briercrest evened out at 4-4, pulling ahead to 7-4, eventually being caught and surpassed at 9-10. Kings momentum picked up, leaving Briercrest down 11-18 by the end of the first quarter.

Briercrest came into the second quarter with fresh energy, good rebounding resulting in lots of drives. After a few King’s points, Nicole Meyer helped get Briercrest’s momentum rolling, kickstarting a series of Briercrest points by Claire Richardson and Krista Wiens, driving the score up to 28-30.  Fouls allowed the King’s many scoring opportunities but Briercrest kept pushing back, the score 31-37 at halftime.

Coach Chad Romanuk commented on the team’s offense.

“All of us really contributed offensively. We all had a pretty decent offensive game,” adding that despite shooting really well, Briercrest simply didn’t take enough shots.

Briercrest wasted no time gaining on King’s, opening up the third quarter with a long pass down the court from Friesen to Meyer right into the hands of Wanvig who dropped it in the bucket. Wanvig, who was on a roll, dropped in two more, closing the lead at 37-38. King’s began to pull away in response but multiple points from Brooke Briscoe were significant in keeping Briercrest not far behind. The third quarter ended King’s up a mere seven points, 55-48. 

 

Richardson opened the fourth quarter, scoring for Briercrest and her intense rebounding enabled Briscoe, Wanvig and Meyer to score, gaining 58-59. Free throw points by Richardson and Tracy Frimpong were last of Briercrest’s points, being as close as 61-64 before Kings pulled out of reach.  Fouls got Briercrest in trouble right at the end, giving King’s many opportunities for free throws, to close the game just shy of a victory, 61-77. 

Romanuk remarked later that the Clippers fouled King’s a lot throughout the game. He went on to explain that mental toughness in the final few minutes was the key to what cost Briercrest the game.

Players of the game were King’s Samantha Tennant with 11 rebounds and 29 points and Briercrest’s Claire Richardson with a 4-4 free throw record, 14 rebounds, three blocks and 10 points.

Krista Wiens led Briercrest with four assists. Meghan Friesen had two steals. Amy Wanvig contributed 17 points.

 

Briercrest shot 24-61 (39.3%) and King’s shot 24-94 (25.5%). Briercrest made 13-23 free throw attempts (56.5%), and Kings made 27-40 (67.5%). Briercrest had 14 assists while Kings had three. Briercrest allowed 44 turnovers while Kings allowed 21. Briercrest had five steals compared to 19 from Kings.

Briercrest continues in search for a win at home against Grande Prairie Regional College Saturday, October 26 at 6:00pm in the Margaret P. Reimer Memorial gymnasium.

 

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