Despite senior forward Nicole Anderson’s career high of 1,000 points, the University of Indianapolis women’s basketball team fell short to the Quincy University Hawks on Feb. 4. Anderson is the 23rd woman in UIndy history to hit this milestone.
Anderson scored on the first possession of the game, hitting her 1,000 point. Quincy and UIndy battled during the first half, with multiple lead changes, sending the Hounds into halftime with a 37-32 lead.
After the break, UIndy maintained their lead until the final minutes when Quincy shot a 3-pointer buzzer beater to send the game into overtime.
Both teams exchanged the lead in the overtime session, but the Hawks secured a 8-0 run in the final seconds, and despite the Hounds attempts, Quincy took home the 84-80 win.
Earlier in the week, junior guard Martha Burse’s career high of 31 points, was not enough to pull out a victory for the Hounds against Truman State on Feb. 2. Despite the Hounds scoring on the first possession of the game, the Bulldogs jumped ahead to take the early lead with eight straight points.
The score was tied at 20 at the end of the first quarter. The Hounds reacted, scoring back to back at the beginning of the second. Unwilling to give up the lead, the Bulldogs took the lead again, which they would maintain for the remainder of the game.
Alongside Burse’s achievement, Anderson achieved her sixth double-double of the year, and was the only other Greyhound to hit double digit points.
The women split two games at home the previous week with a win against the No. 11 Bellarmine University Knights on Jan. 26, and a loss to the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles on Jan. 28.
The Greyhounds fell to the Screaming Eagles 58-47, showing low shooting numbers from both teams The Screaming Eagles, who have the top offense in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, were held to just two points in the opening quarter but rallied to win the game.
The Screaming Eagles outscored the Greyhounds 23-12 in the second quarter and led 25-20 at the half. The Greyhounds were held to 37.3 percent shooting on the day.
“We did not shoot the ball well,” said Head Women’s Basketball Coach Kristin Drabyn. “We defended well and held their leading scorer to four points and made them take tough shots, but we just didn’t execute as well on offense as we have been doing essentially since Christmas.”
Burse scored 21 points and went 9-for-15 shooting, her second consecutive and fifth overall 20-point game since transferring from neighboring Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis to become a Greyhound this season.
“As with anything, it’s a learning process [joining a new team] … but it has been very enjoyable,” Burse said. “I’m the type of person who would prefer to win and have five points over having 20 points and losing.”
The 80-65 win against Bellarmine was the first win against a ranked opponent in three years and extended the team’s longest winning streak of the season to four games.
“I thought we pressured them really well. We took away what they wanted to do. We were good in our gaps and we rebounded well,”Drabyn said. “When we can do that, we limit their possessions and maximize our own.”
The Hounds held the lead the entire game, getting 25 points from Anderson, 25 points from Burse and 19 from junior guard Sarah Costello.
“We just stuck to what we learned in practice: box out, rebound, run in transition, trust the process and trust the system,” Burse said.
The Greyhounds were statistically the more physical team in the game, out-rebounding the Knights 36-28 and outscoring them in the paint 48-34.
“Every game we want to out-rebound the other team. We especially want to limit their offensive rebounds, because we don’t want to give them second chance points,” Drabyn said. “For us, we want to value the basketball as much as we can, and rebounding is one of our top priorities when it comes to that.”
Anderson set a UIndy single-game record for the program, with the most field goals made in a game without a miss, going 11-for-11.
“When you get a kid that just buys in and works really hard each possession, and who is really coachable, it is important for the other players to be able to look up to her and see that,” Drabyn said.
UIndy has five games left in the regular season. Next, they will host the William Jewell College Cardinals on Feb. 9 in Nicoson Hall. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
