Women's Basketball
3/14/2008 - Royals to Play for NCCAA National Title
Oakland City, IN- The Hope International Women’s Basketball Team will play for their first ever NCCAA National Title on Saturday. In today’s Semi-Final, the Royals defeated the Raiders of Roberts Wesleyan 75-70. As usual, Senior Jasmine Nault led the team in scoring as she scored a game high 34 points.
For the second night in a row, Junior Stephanie Wenke dropped in 15 points to help the Royals cause. Senior Cynthia Hernandez added 14 points (including 2 big second half 3 pointers) and 4 assists.
The difference in the game came down free throws, rebounds, and defense. The Royals made 20-23 free throws for the game led by Nault going 9-10 from the line. As a comparison, the Raiders went 8-10 from the line.
Freshman Brittani Philbrook came up huge with a game high 14 rebounds. Nault completed her 13th double-double of the season with 13 rebounds. The Royals out rebounded the Raiders by 15 (46-31)- their largest rebounding advantage of the year.
To top it all off, the Royals staged their biggest come back of the year as they were down at halftime 38-27 but even more so were down by 16 with about 15 minutes to play. It was defense, defense, defense from that point on for the Royals.
Head Coach Dave Ploog said, “We came out lethargic but did not want to lose and the defense stepped to change the game around and helps us come back.”
For the Raiders, they shot 49.1% for the night (versus the Royals’ 35.2%) and finished with four players in double figures. Erin Farney had a team high 21 points while Joanna Patalano finished with 16. Aimee Kovinchick only had 3 points on one three pointer but dished out an incredible game high 12 assists.
The Royals will play for all the marbles on Saturday at 3:00 pm (PST) against the winner of the Cedarville/ Oakland City game.