Women’s basketball falls to Grinnell

The Lawrence women’s basketball team hoped to snap a six-game losing streak when they took on Grinnell this past Saturday. They also sought to put an end to their recent shooting woes, having averaged only 39.8 points in their previous four games, which is well below their season average of 55.7 points per game.

Lawrence started the game strong by hitting their first three field goal attempts, all from sophomore forward Andrea Wilkinson, to give the Vikings an early five-point lead. Grinnell answered with a run of their own and the rest of the half was tightly contested. A late run by the Pioneers gave them a 28-23 lead going into the half.

Grinnell picked up where they left off and extended their lead to double digits in the first few minutes of the second half. Lawrence fought back several times in the second half and cut the lead to five with less than six minutes remaining. Grinnell, however, answered back to take a 10-point lead with four minutes left in the game.

The Vikings would cut the lead to eight twice, the last time being on a reverse layup from senior Alex Deshler with 1:25 left to play. Lawrence could not get any closer than that, however, and lost 62-48.

Deshler led the Vikings with a double-double, finishing with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Deshler has now scored in double figures in eight of the last ten games. Wilkinson also contributed with nine points. Grinnell was led by guard Alissa Hirsch, who finished with 20 points and is second in the Midwest Conference in points per game.

Lawrence lost despite dominating the rebound battle 54-39. It was a rough afternoon shooting for the Vikings, as they shot just 24 percent for the game and went 1 for 14 on three-point attempts.

“A key to the game was communication, on both offense and defense,” commented Wilkinson. “While we did a decent job on defense, we still need to improve on executing our offense and finishing shots.” When asked what a few high points of the game were, Wilkinson responded, “Our rebounding was good. Also, we never gave up. When they went on a scoring run or when we struggled to score, we fought through it and were able to come back a little bit, even if the final score doesn’t show that.”

Lawrence fell to 1-7 in the MWC and 3-10 overall. The Vikings travel to Ripon on Wednesday, Jan. 19 before returning home to play Knox College on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 3:00 p.m. Lawrence defeated Knox in a nail-biter earlier this season, 93-92.