The Lawrence women’s basketball team (2-7, 0-3 MWC) hosted Beloit College (5-7, 3-2 MWC) last Tuesday, falling 65-44 after poor second-half shooting by the Vikings let the Buccaneers cruise to a comfortable win.
Aggressive offensive rebounding by Lawrence’s front court kept the game close for the first 15 minutes. With five minutes remaining the first half, Lawrence was holding on to an 18-17 lead, but the Buccaneers went on a 14-3 run going into halftime and Beloit led 32-21 at the break.
The second half went poorly for Lawrence, as Beloit started the period with a 21-2 run and never looked back. The Vikings, using a seven-player rotation against Beloit’s 11-deep lineup, never trailed the less-fatigued Buccaneers by fewer than 21 points in the rest of the game.
The Vikings were paced by freshman guard Cathy Kaye with a career-high 11 points. However, Kaye’s performance was not enough to erase Lawrence’s .259 field-goal percentage, the Vikings’ 23 turnovers, or the Buccaneers’ 42-34 rebounding edge. Beloit was led by sophomore guard Faith Jones, who scored 20 points on 8-11 shooting, and junior guard Amanda Moore, who notched 18 points and 10 rebounds to post a double-double.
The Vikings return to action this weekend with a pair of home games. The Vikings will host a struggling Monmouth College squad at 5 p.m. Friday, then return to the court at 2 p.m. Saturday to face the Lake Forest Foresters. With each team in possession of a 0-3 in-conference record, the Monmouth-Lawrence game could provide a much-needed victory to head coach Mark Heidorf’s team.
Women’s Basketball falters in the second half against Beloit
