The Lawrence University women’s basketball team had a hard time making buckets Jan. 13 against Grinnell. They made ten shots from the floor when they shot 57. From behind the three-point arch, they were one for 19.
Seven minutes into the game, Grinnell had a double figure lead that our Lady Vikings couldn’t recover from. Grinnell came out hard and never fizzled enough to give Lawrence a chance. Sophomore Alex Deshler had an outstanding game, though, getting another double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Freshman Presley Neuman also had double digits in rebounds, grabbing 10 boards. But this wasn’t enough to stop Grinnell from pounding in 62 points. With the Lady Vikings scoring just 35 points, Lawrence took the loss.
After the loss, the Lawrence tried to go into the next game with a positive attitude, but they just couldn’t bounce back from the previous game. A little over five minutes into the game, Monmouth had an 11-point lead. At one point during the first half, that lead grew to 20. Our Vikings got within 16 before the half was over, but they were going to try to do something different in the second half to pull out a win.
The second half started and Monmouth was really drilling all of their shots. They went on a 28-6 run and were winning by 38, more than doubling our Vikings score with a little over 12 minutes still left to play. Sophomore Amber Lisowe had 19 points in the game, and freshman Chioma Ejimkonye added 15.
Ejimkonye also had four steals in the game, and junior Cathy Kaye had 13 points and six rebounds. Neuman dominated the game on the boards again and had ten rebounds. With all of these women doing so well, it was surprising that they couldn’t finish the game. Lawrence lost 94-66 to Monmouth College. But, the Vikings played with a lot of heart and never gave up, no matter what the score was.
When asked about how the team plays, even through these hard games, all-star manager Nikki Chase commented, “The girls work really hard no matter what the score board says, and their last game against Monmouth was a good example of that. Yes, they were down by double digits, but they never stopped dropping threes and getting to that free throw line. They work very hard in practice all the time and they have a strong desire to get some wins.”
Even though they might not win often, the Lady Vikings give it their all in every game.