Hot start powers Ichabods over Bearcats

JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Northwest senior Molly Hartnett attempts to drive on Wednesday night against Washburn in Bearcat Arena.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — This season in the MIAA is different from every one before. With the addition of Arkansas-Fort Smith, the conference has gone to a north-south scheduling model where the northern teams play the northern teams each twice before playing the southern schools.

The divisions break down fairly lopsided for women’s basketball with seven of the top 10 teams from last season’s standings in the north division and with a north division team winning at least a share of the conference every season except one going back to 1992.

The grind that has been the north-only schedule for the Northwest Missouri State women took another turn last Wednesday with the Bearcats hosting Washburn. The Ichabods avenged a loss to Bearcats in Topeka just 11 days prior with a 71-60 win in Bearcat Arena.

The game was ultimately decided by the red-hot start of the Ichabod offense, and the inability of the Bearcats to offer any resistance. Washburn shot 84.6% (11-for-13) in the first quarter. They did that without a 3-point attempt as it was a runway to the paint for the entire quarter.

“The beginning of the game, we just literally did not guard the ball at all and gave everybody layups,” Northwest coach Austin Meyer said. “We had a serious discussion of just going on the board, drawing Xs and just saying, we’ve never played zone, but was thinking about going zone cause we just literally could not guard them.”

The Ichabods built a 25-10 lead after one quarter.

“It is not like we didn’t prepare,” Northwest senior Caely Kesten said. “We did well in practice, but when it was time to show out, I feel like the players didn’t really show out especially in that first quarter. It is not that we weren’t trying necessarily, but ‘do or do not, there is no try.’ You have to do it and we just didn’t do it, I guess.”

Three minutes into the second quarter, true freshman Aaliyah Riley checked in. Riley started the first two games of the season for Northwest, suffered an injury and hasn’t played over 20 minutes in a game since.

Immediately upon checking in, Riley got a deflection. The Bearcats began chipping away at the lead as Kesten hit a jumper, Emree Zars hit a 3-pointer and a foul shot to get within 30-21. The lead was still at nine when Riley checked out after a three and a half minute stint.

“She had a good week of practice,” Meyer said of Riley. “Going hard, playing with a motor consistently, taking care of the basketball. She is somebody who we got to get back going again, because she is an element that we are missing from an athleticism and finishing (standpoint). Just got to keep getting her improved and hopefully she will be out there more for us.”

The Bearcats continued to chip away and got the margin down to six before Washburn ended the half up 41-33.

Northwest would continue to trim the lead down as a Kesten 3-pointer with 4:20 left in the fourth quarter got them to within six. That was as close the game got though as Northwest dropped its third-straight MIAA contest.

“You aren’t going to win many games when you are that bad defensively,” Meyer said. “Obviously when you compare our team to last year’s team, Jayna Green is somebody that we are missing defensively who can switch screens, can block shots and rebound. We are missing that athleticism element as well, but there is still no excuse to get beat as much as we did guarding the basketball.”

Kesten finished with 23 points. Zars added 15 and Molly Hartnett had 11. Kelsey Fields nearly had a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds. Lindsey Kelderman added two points, but the Bearcat bench didn’t score in the game while the Ichabod bench had 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Washburn was led by a dominant post-up game from Yibari Nwidadah. She had 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting. Gabi Giovannetti added 14 points as Washburn only made one 3-pointer the entire game.

“I knew she was really physical,” Fields said of Nwidadah. “Just trying to keep her out of the paint, making her score over me and doing what I could to not let her get a lot of easy buckets. She made a lot of tough shots and I’ll give that to her.”

The Bearcats travel to Missouri Western on Feb. 1