The women’s basketball team outrebounded Drexel and held them to 35 percent shooting, but came up about five minutes and a star player short, losing 50-47 in the third round of the WNIT at the Stroh Center on Thursday night.
If the name of the game was rebounding and field goal percentage, then the BG women’s basketball team would be in the WNIT Elite Eight.
Drexel’s Hollie Mershon, who averages 19 points per game and lit up Harvard in the past round for over 30 points, took the reigns and dominated the closing minutes.
“She really turned it on in the last five minutes,” senior Chrissy Steffen said. “She really took it over.”
Mershon had eight points, three rebounds and an assist in the final five minutes.
“[Mershon] is a kid that will haunt BG fans and myself for awhile,” coach Jennifer Roos said. “She is a professional player when her time is done.”
With the loss, the Falcons will say goodbye to a senior class that won 103 games in their collective careers.
Seniors include forwards Allison Papenfuss and redshirt Danielle Havel, and guards Simone Eli and Steffen.
“The seniors are awesome, I’m really going to miss them,” freshman Miriam Justinger said. “They were great role models for me.”
The 103 wins among the class ties a school record set by the 2007 team that went to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. In the past four seasons, the team earned two births to the NCAA tournament and back-to-back invites to the WNIT.
The Falcons opened the game antsy as they committed three fouls, three turnovers and were forcing the ball into the paint when the lanes weren’t open. Drexel’s three-point shooting took advantage of the struggling Falcons and opened up a 12-4 lead.
BG calmed down and with some three-point shooting of its own, went on a 14-0 run getting the crowd behind the home team.
“We said before the game that the crowd would be the sixth man,” Justinger said. “They really were.”
From that point on, both teams looked statistically identical – a plus for the Falcons, who on paper looked minor-league compared to Drexel. The two teams would have gone into the half tied if it wasn’t for a Jillian Halfhill prayer-shot that found it’s way into the netting at the buzzer.
The Dragons were ranked in the top-25 nationally in six statistical categories, including three-point field goal percentage at 36 percent and turnovers per game with 11.
BG held Drexel to 30 percent from behind the arc, but the Dragons contained the ball better, only giving it up eight times.
The second half started much like the first – a Drexel run to put them ahead. Drexel would lead the game until there was six minutes left.
Despite both teams having quick turnarounds in between their prior games, neither looked ready to end their season.
“In the postseason you always have a short turnaround,” Roos said. “But I always say, ‘Better a short turnaround than no turnaround.’”
The Falcons and Dragons would go back and forth tying or leading by no more than three points. The game really turned in the final minute, with BG being down two points on an ensuing Drexel inbound.
With both teams expecting BG to foul and play the free-throw game, a mishandled ball was in the midst of what can only be called a scrum.
The ruling – a BG foul. Despite plees from the crowd and Coach Roos for a jump ball, Mershon went to the line for Drexel.
“We got a foul,” Roos said. “And it was a jump ball in my opinion, but we got a foul.”
Mershon would make both free throws and the Falcons weren’t able to recover despite another Halfhill prayer-shot attempt. This one however, found nothing but hardwood as time expired.
The loss put an end to Roos’ first season as head coach.
“I was mentored by Curt Miller; one of the best coaches if not the best,” Ross said about her season. “I hear his voice in my head a lot.”
Roos will return next season with juniors Halfhill, Jill Stein and Katrina Salinas.
“I was mentored by the best,” Roos said. “And you always want more.”
