Lakeland College

Shooting Woes Plague Muskies in Loss to Carroll

Athletics - posted on 11/28/2006

The Lakeland College women's basketball team (2-2) dropped a non-conference game, 40-26, to Carroll College in Lakeland's Moose and Dona Woltzen Gymnasium on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

Despite a frustrating 21 percent field-goal average from the floor for the game, the Muskies went into halftime only down by two with the score at an uncommonly low 16-14, as Carroll only shot 27 percent as a team in the first half.

However, the Pioneers got their shooting back on track in the second half to boost their team percentage to 36 percent for the game, while the Muskies continued to struggle.

"Carroll College just beat us on both ends of the court," said head coach April Arvan. "As bad as we were in the first half we were even worse in the second half. It was everything - points, our production and our shooting percentage. I'm embarrassed by the fact that our final score was a normal halftime score, but I'm not going to make any excuses. We're a much better team then that."

Lakeland did make a short run at taking the lead after remaining stuck at 14 points for the first six minutes of the second half, starting with a lay-up by freshman guard Megan Chart. That score was closely followed by a baseline jumper from senior forward Danielle Duranceau and another two points from Chart to make the score 22-20 with Carroll still on top.

But, that was as close as the Muskies would get as the Pioneers used a 26 point performance from junior guard Crystal Hoewisch to pull away.

In spite of fouling out with over three minutes to go in the game, senior forward Jenna Boehm led Lakeland in both scoring with six points and rebounding with eight, five of which were offensive boards.

"They're aggressive players," Arvan said of both Boehm and freshman starter Brittanie Paulus fouling out. "I don't like the calls that weren't attacking the basket since there were some in the backcourt we don't have to worry about and some where there was no scoring threat. But because of their playing personalities they tend to pick those up, so we'll have to work on that in practice."

Although the Muskies struggled offensively, Arvan was pleased with her squad's defensive effort.

"I thought defensively we did exactly what we wanted to do," she said. "We knew that Hoewisch was going to get her points. We didn't expect 26 and we hoped to contain her a little bit better, but I thought we did a great job on Elwood and Wickert.

"We can take what we did on defense as a positive, but we potentially could be a program that holds great teams to 40 points but still scores only 20. Hopefully at some point we'll be able to correct that, but if we don't, maybe at some point down the road we'll win 26 to 25."

The Muskies next game with Aurora University on Saturday, Dec. 2, will kick off their Northern Athletics Conference schedule at home.

"Obviously there's some concern that we have on the offensive end," said Arvan of the match-up with a high-scoring Aurora squad. "But I really believe in this team and I believe they'll get it figured out. They have remained positive, and I really think we will get it together; it's just a matter of when."

Game time on Saturday is set for 2 p.m.

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