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Lady Busters open with win
Published 11/3/2007 in Sports : GCCC By Marshall
LIBERAL -- It only took 40 minutes for the Garden City Community College women's basketball team to equal their win total from last season.
Trailing 70-65 with under two minutes to play in the game, the Lady Busters rallied to squeak out a 71-70 victory over Carl Albert State in their season opener on Friday afternoon at the Seward Classic in Liberal.
After finishing 1-28 last year, Garden City (1-0, 0-0) was able to equal last year's limited success in just one game.
"That's the one thing I've been saying since media day," said Garden City head coach Jake Ripple. "That I guarantee we'll be a better team than we were a year ago."
In the first seven minutes of play, the Lady Busters looked well on the way to backing up their coach's talk. Garden City jumped out to a 10-3 lead and looked dominant in holding the Lady Vikings without a field goal for the first five minutes.
Then, suddenly, the Lady Busters reverted back to their old ways. Carl Alberts fought back, erasing the seven point deficit with a 13-6 run midway through the first half. By halftime, Garden City trailed 37-31. The Lady Busters trailed for most of the game after a sub-par performance from the free-throw line. Garden City squandered 17 points of free throws after going just 4 for 21 from the line.
"This really shouldn't have been a game at all," Ripple said. "If we'd have bothered to shoot free throws at all, it wouldn't have been near as close."
Yet, despite their free throw struggles and shooting only .463 from the floor, the Lady Busters stayed close throughout most of the second half behind the play of freshmen Katie Novack and Trista Schmitt. In their first collegiate appearance, the tandem from Holcomb High School scored 26 of Garden City's 71 points, with Novack racking up 19 points with the help of three 3-pointers. Schmitt scored seven points and came down with six rebounds.
"It was nerve wracking, but once the game starts you just forget about all of that and try to focus on playing your game," Novack said. "We're a pretty clutch team, and I think this shows that. Hopefully it carries over for the rest of the season."
Trailing 70-65 with 1:12 remaining, Novack hit a layup to pull the Lady Busters within three. Ten seconds later, Novack hit two free throws after getting fouled while going up for a shot. On the ensuing inbound pass, Novack jumped the pass and kicked it out to Schmitt who laid it in to put Garden City ahead by one with 59 seconds left to go.
"I was just reading the girl who was inbounding it," Novack said. "I left a little space between us, and when she passed I went for it."
On the Lady Vikings' final chance, sophomore LaTaish Brown knocked away the rebound off of a missed shot by point guard Bojana Dimitrov with under five seconds remaining to seal the game.
Freshman Amelia Jones also finished in double digits for Garden City with 10 points, while Jolea Apon led Carl Albert with 17 points. The Lady Busters face Odessa College at Seward Community College at 2 p.m. today.
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GCCC 71, CARL ALBERT 70
CARL ALBERT (0-1, 0-0): Dimitrov 4-10 0-0 9, Banks 4-10 3-5 11, Apon 7-15 0-0 17, Nave 1-1 1-6 3, McReynolds 4-6 0-0 8, Finney 2-3 0-0 5, Walls 3-3 0-0 7, Doherty 1-2 0-0 3, Wright 3-4 0-0 6, Calderon 0-3 0-0 0, Fore 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 29-58 5-13 70.
GCCC (1-0, 0-0): Young 4-5 0-0 8, Brown 3-10 0-3 7, Schmitt 3-8 0-3 7, Jones 5-7 0-3 10, Novack 7-22 2-4, Brown 4-7 1-4 9, Copeland 1-2 0-0 2 Durler 3-5 1-2 7, Loadholt 1-1 0-2 2. Totals 31-67 4-21 71.
Halftime: Carl Albert 37-31. 3-Point Goals: Carl Albert 7-14 (Apon 3-5, Doherty 1-2, Walls 1-1, Finney 1-1, Dimitrov 1-1, Banks 0-2, Wright 0-1, Fore 0-1), GCCC: 5-17 (Novack 3-10, Brown 1-3, Schmitt 1-3, Copeland 0-1). Fouled Out: None. Rebounds: Carl Albert 29 (Banks 6), GCCC 50 (Brown, Schmitt 8). Assists: Carl Albert 17 (Banks, Dimitrov 4); GCCC 14 (Brown 6). Total Fouls: Carl Albert 21, GCCC 14.
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