The University of Indianapolis women’s basketball team wrapped up its regular season on Wednesday, Feb. 24, with a 58-46 win over the Saint Joseph’s College Pumas. The team also honored seniors Darion Hutchinson, Mariah Weddle, Princess German and Marlena Muszak during the Senior Night win.
While taking on the Pumas, sophomore guard Sarah Costello had a game-high 23 points, and German followed right behind with 20 points.
“It’s good to have that type of [senior] leadership,” said Head Women’s Basketball Coach Constantin Popa. “When one of your top guns gets it done, the rest of the team tends to follow along.”
The first five minutes of play brought only a total of seven points across the board. The Pumas had four points and the Greyhounds had three. A minute later, UIndy grabbed a 6-4 lead and maintained the lead until the end of the game. The Hounds largest lead was in the 4th quarter with a difference of 14 points between the teams, 44-30.
The Greyhounds combined for nine steals with Costello having four, Ferguson having three and German and sophomore forward Ashley Montanez each adding one. Montanez also had three blocks in the win.
The Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament is the next thing on the Greyhounds’ schedule. Costello said she is ready to attack the challenge and put up a fight.
“I think we can surprise a lot of teams. We just need to keep playing like this and playing like a team…. We don’t really have a record that shows how good we are,” she said. “A lot of the teams we have played we have been right there with them, and we are a tough team that is always battling back.”
Popa is waiting to hear which team the Greyhounds will compete against in the first round of the tournament.
“We hope to win it,” Popa said. “We need to take it one day at a time and one game at a time. Obviously we don’t know who we’re playing yet. But we’re playing pretty good basketball and hopefully we can keep that going and get the job done…. We don’t have a whole lot of depth, but they [the players] fight. We’ve been through some rough weeks and months, especially at the beginning of the season. To be honest I think some other teams would fall at that point, [but] not this team. They fight and they believe.”
The women will travel to Lebanon, Ill. to compete against McKendree University on Sunday, Feb. 27. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.
