ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's basketball team had advanced to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament with a 63-42 win over John Carroll University in the Second Round.
The Thunder (26-3) will play Springfield College in the next round at a location to be determined. The season for the Blue Streaks (23-5) comes to an end and the departure of two of the best players in school history, Olivia Nagy and Nicole Heffington.
Trine forced John Carroll to shoot just 1-of-13 (7.7%) from beyond the arc in the game and won the turnover battle, 17-13. The Thunder scored 18 points off of Blue Streak miscues.
"I'm really proud of the way our team played today, especially defensively," head coach Andy Rang noted in his press conference. "We set the tone early and got into them to make them uncomfortable."
The team has now gotten back to the place they were two years ago when the call came in that the event was being cancelled due to COVID-19. Senior forward Kelsy Taylor recalled, "When we got that call the morning of practice the day before, it broke our hearts. Last year we couldn't be in it with no tournament. We worked our butts off all year to get here and we're finally here! From here, it's one game at a time and worry about the team in front of us."
Opposed to their slow start in their First Round game, Trine dominated the opening minutes of this one and scored the first 15 points of the game to take a firm advantage and lead wire-to-wire. Katie Sloneker [Monroe, Ohio / Monroe] recorded a pair of makes inside and Tara Bieniewicz [Chesterfield, Mich. / Dakota] knocked down her 200th career three to highlight the run.
The first make for John Carroll came at the 3:08-mark and scores on their next four out of five offensive possessions kept the Blue Streaks in striking distance, but two field goals by Rachel Stewart [Pekin, Ind. / Eastern] made it 21-9 at the quarter break. Stewart commented postgame about the shift in headspace coming into today's game after yesterday's sluggish start. "We learned how to pick ourselves up energy wise and defensivley to get going. We needed to pick our teammates up and keep our heads high because shots will start falling."
Taylor displayed grit inside and notched two makes early in the third, but those would be the only Trine points through the first six minutes of clock time in the second quarter. John Carroll methodically worked their way back into the game and cut the lead all the way down to 25-20. Makayla Ardis [Lake City, Mich. / Lake City] was the one to break the dry spell with a three-point field goal.
After the Blue Streaks worked so hard to get within two scores, the lead ballooned back up to 16 with a 10-0 run to wrap up the half. Sam Underhill [Grand Rapids, Mich. / Northview], Kaylee Argyle [Freeland, Mich. / Freeland] and Kayla Wildman [Rockford, Mich. / Rockford] were contributors at the end of the 38-22 first half.
The Thunder forced 11 first half turnovers and held the Blue Streaks to just over 30% from the field. Trine outscored their opponents 10-0 on the fast break, a statistic that John Carroll is usually on the other side of.
Ardis tallied six of the first eight points to give her 11 on the night, a number that would end up being tied for the team-high with Stewart. In a 16-10 quarter win for Trine, the bench unit had eight in the final three minutes and change.
The teams went even through the fourth quarter as the Thunder utilized the full length of the shot clock to secure the victory. The defense kept the Blue Streaks to five points over the first six and a half minutes of action in the period. A three-minute dry spell by the Trine offense was broken by a Stewart three with four minutes remaining to go up 61-37.
The Thunder bled the clock over the final two minutes of the game en route to the 63-42 victory. Stewart and Ardis were the only Trine scorers in double figures with 11 apiece and Bieniewicz was the team's leading rebounder with eight. As a team, the Thunder won the rebounding battle 45-34 and made it nine consecutive games with double figures offensive rebounds after they pulled down 14 tonight.
Trine awaits to see where and when they will play Springfield College out of Massachusetts on Friday, March 11.