Written and Media by Tymber Gabbert
The Greenville College Women’s Basketball team finished the week off strong with wins over both Fontbonne on Wednesday and Principia on Saturday to maintain their position in the SLIAC standings.
The Fontbonne game ended in a seven point difference in Greenville’s favor with an outstanding performance by senior Missy Deal, who recorded 16 points and nine rebounds. Greenville opened the game on fire and took an eight point lead into the half. However, by the end of the third quarter, the Lady Panthers had their eight point lead cut to one. Greenville responded by outscoring Fontbonne 19-10 in the fourth quarter resulting in a 75-68 win. The women’s basketball Graduate Assistant Skylar Bareford states, “Going into Fontbonne our focus was on rebounding, transition defense and taking care of the ball. Defensively we wanted to make sure to stop Fontbonne on the break and only give them one shot. Offensively, Fontbonne plays an interesting 2-3 matchup zone and they press for most of the game. We knew in order to play well we would have to make great passes to find the next shot. We also wanted to take advantage of our post play.” Sophomore Meredith Crosier tallied twelve points, senior Jamie Schollenbruch ten points, and sophomore Kelly Lenz contributed twelve rebounds and four assists, who, alongside Deal, made this win possible for the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Panthers’ success didn’t stop there, however. Just two days after the win at Fontbonne, Greenville
traveled to Elsah, Ill. to take on the Principia Panthers. The Greenville Panthers maintained a nine point lead going into halftime and finished strong with an outstanding 62-42 victory. According to Bareford, “For Principia, they only have seven players, so we wanted to wear them down defensively and offensively. We pressed them the entire game which created many opportunities for us. We also knew we outsized them and so we focused on getting the ball to the post as well.” Deal had another fantastic game as the leading scorer generating 14 points. Sophomore Maria Reinhard also contributed to the success of the Lady Panthers as she scored nine points to the win.
The Greenville Lady Panthers have had multiple players step up and make a huge impact on their success this week. However, Lenz and Deal are recognized by the coaching staff as being the two players who stood out. “Missy continues to work really hard to create and take good shots and has one of the best field goal percentages in the SLIAC. She scored in double figures both games,” states Bareford. “Kelly has been a large factor in our games with her hustle and rebounding. She has done a great job not only on the defensive boards but also the offensive boards. She has helped to push the pace of our games.” Both of these ladies are outstanding athletes and have a lot to offer this program.
Greenville is currently tied for second place with Iowa Wesleyan in the SLIAC rankings and has an overall record of 16-7 (12-4 SLIAC). The Lady Panthers head to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on Wednesday to take on the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers. “Iowa is an important game for us because it can help our NCCAA ranking. With that said, we are now locked in at second place for the tournament and so we hope that this takes some of the pressure off as we play. Iowa plays a funky zone that we will spend time getting ready to face, and also add some wrinkles to our current plays. Defensively we were able to shut down some of their offense in our last game against them, and so we will get ready to go to work on that,” says Bareford.
If these young women continue to play with the passion they have shown this past week, the Tigers will have a tough game ahead of them.
