Junior guard Sarah Costello goes in for a lay-up against the Lewis University Flyers on Dec. 3 in Romeoville, Ill. Photo contributed by Ryan Thorpe
With a win against the Cedarville University Yellow Jackets on Saturday, the University of Indianapolis women’s basketball team advanced its record to 6-3.
In the last game of the seven-game road trip, two Greyhounds scored season highs. Junior guard Devin Ferguson scored 12 points while freshman guard/forward Taylor Foster claimed nine.
In the first quarter, the Hounds took a 17-5 lead following a 12-0 run over the Yellow Jackets. In the second quarter, Cedarville tried to make a comeback, shortening the lead to 24-13. Right before halftime, the Hounds pushed back, and brought the score to 31-14 going into the break.
The Hounds sustained the energy into the second half, and lead up to 23 points in the third quarter. In the final minutes of the quarter, the Yellow Jackets attempted to catch up to the Greyhounds with a 8-0 run.
In the final quarter, the Hounds took back their significant lead, up to 20 points. Cedarville did not answer back to this lead, granting UIndy the 58-39 win.
Junior guard/forward Sydney Brackemyre led scoring with 15 points and a field goal percent of 58. As a team, the Hounds grabbed a season high of 47 rebounds; junior guard Sarah Costello being nine of them and junior guard Martha Burse getting eight.
The previous week, the women went 1-1 and battled the Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers and the Lewis University Flyers. The women began last week with a win against the Rangers on Dec. 1.
Costello scored in the first possession of the game, which earned the Hounds an early lead. The lead went back and forth, until Parkside took the lead late in the first half. Brackemyre reacted with a buzzer beater 3-pointer, which sent the Hounds into the half with a 31-29 lead.
The Greyhounds opened the second half with a 15-2 run in 4:55 to strengthen their lead, which they would keep for the duration of the game.
UIndy took home the win with a score of 70-57. Brackemyre dominated the game with a season high of 29 points and her third triple-double of the year. Senior forward Nicole Anderson also contributed with 15 points and scored on all nine of her free throws.
Coming off the win, the women suffered a loss to the 18th ranked Flyers on Dec. 3. The lead in this game also went back and forth in the beginning, until Lewis scored 17 straight points from the end of the first quarter to the beginning of the second, stretching the lead to 23-8. By the end of the half, UIndy slightly trimmed the lead to 31-17.
The Hounds came out of the half with more power, and a 15-4 run over the Flyers and brought the game to a single possession. UIndy could not pull ahead, and the Flyers eventually took back their double-digit lead and sustained it for the rest of the game, taking the win 61-43.
A field goal percentage of 29.1 contributed to the loss against Lewis University, according to Head Women’s Basketball Coach Kristin Drabyn.
“Our field goal percentage was really low on Saturday, and so I think offensively we didn’t have a flow as much. We didn’t get to the foul line like we should’ve on Saturday,” she said. “And you’re going to have games like that. When you play a team like Lewis, who is a top 20 team in the country, you can’t really have lapses. And they did a really nice job. They played really well, and I think that was the biggest difference.”
Brackemyre agreed there was a difference in the games between Parkside and Lewis, and the team had more momentum in the first game of the week against Parkside.
“[We possessed] more aggression. I think we were more aggressive on the offensive end, and we took better shots and started getting into the rim more and getting to the foul line towards the second half,” Brackemyre said. “Once we started going at them, that’s when we got our lead. That’s something we didn’t do as well on Saturday….We scored the ball better on Thursday, and I think we ran the offense better…. Saturday, we just couldn’t really get anything to fall.”
Brackemyre also said the team was able to score better on Thursday, whereas in Saturday’s game, they had a hard time getting the ball to fall in their favor.
The competitors were very tough in the game against Lewis on Saturday, which had an impact on the outcome of the game, according to Drabyn.
“There were more mis-matches that we went to on Thursday. On Saturday, they had a couple of players of GLVC that were some of the best players in the conference. So on Thursday, we were able to use our mis-matches. I think that was the biggest difference between Parkside and Lewis,” Drabyn said.
Statistically, the women have had a more successful season this year than they have since the 2013-14 season, where they went 7-2 in their first nine games of the season.
As it is Drabyn’s first year as head coach, she said that she is proud of the athletes and programs UIndy has to offer.
“I’ve been around Indianapolis for a long time, and UIndy, specifically, has a great tradition in athletics. Not just a winning tradition, but how people hold themselves and carry themselves around here,” Drabyn said. “It’s a great environment to be around, and the culture. That’s the kind of culture I always wanted my program to be… To be at an institution where you’re able to not only do what you believe and have your vision be sought out, your administration, other coaches, other programs believe in the same thing. It’s been really helpful to be a first year head coach in an event.”
The Hounds’ next game will be against the IU-Kokomo Cougars on Dec. 15 UIndy will host the match at Nicoson Hall at 7 p.m.
