Out & About: New Life/Maranatha

#10 posting 2.17.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

MCAA TOURNAMENT
Championship
NEW LIFE eagles 49, MARANATHA mustangs 44

New Life won the Minnesota Christian Athletic Association (MCAA) title, but had to survive a furious Maranatha rally that came from 13 back to tie it at 44. With the win New Life moves to 23-3 on the year. They were undefeated in conference play as well. Maranatha is 16-7.

New Life drew first blood with Kristin Stein's shot from the right corner on the opening possession. NL led 6-2 when Maranatha scored on three consecutive possessions to take their first lead at 8-6. Olivia Mann nailed a three from the top of the right key area. New Life would not trail again the rest of the game. Maranatha closed to 13-11 on a flash cut in the post by Nicole Malzahn. NL then had a 9-1 run to lead 22-12 with Jenny Ramey scoring 4 in the spurt. But the ebb and flow was steady throughout the first half and it seemed one team would score three times, and then the other would take their shot. Maranatha had a 6-0 run to narrow the gap to 22-18. To close the half Mann nailed two threes in three possessions for NL and they left the floor up 30-22 at the half. Mann had four 3s for all 12 of her points. Rachael Long led Maranatha with 9.

NL started the half with two straight scores topped off with a Ramey 3 from an out of bounds play to the right corner. That was the high water mark for their lead at 35-22. Maranatha started their long road back with 4/5 scoring sequence and 8-0 run to make it 35-30. Malzahn had four during the stretch. But then Maranatha went into an 11 possession slumber, only 3 of which were turnovers. But New Life was not able to squeeze a big run out of Maranatha's problem. They only had a trickle of three points. NL had a 9 possession dry spell of their own, buy they had five turnovers in the mix. Maranatha was able to whittle the 40-30 NL lead down to 40-38 after Rachael Long and Jessica Knopik hit consecutive 3s. New Life took a time out to stop the momentum with 4:32 left. A 3:53 Maranatha had to take time out due to two consecutive scores by NL. Cara Lutes scored on a put back and post up to make it 44-38 NL. But Maranatha wasn't finished with their comeback. Kaylee Groves went NBA deep with a pair of threes in the next two possessions to knot it all up at 44 with 2:20 left. That was to be the final points for Maranatha. They did have to chances to take the lead, but a missed 3 and then an errant pass finished it off. On NL's next four possessions they converted starting off with a transition lay up by Ramey. NL was only 3/6 at the line, but did get at least one point off those situaions. New Life had won their title 49-44.

NUMBERS EXPLAINED
player, points, possessions, pp100, floor %

NEW LIFE i will do player evals later. I need my sleep
STARTERS
Cara Lutes 7, 10, 70.0, .400
Danielle Schmidt 2, 4, 50.0, .250
Sarah Nisleit 7, 8, 87.5, .500
Jenny Ramey 12, 18, 66.7, .333
Kristin Stein 4, 6, 66.7, .333
BENCH
Danielle Cathey 3, 6, 50.0, .333
Olivia Mann 12, 10, 120.0, .400
Rebekah Schmidt 2, 7, 28.6. .143
Ali Smith 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Melissa Mueller 0, 0, 0.0, .000

MARANATHA
STARTERS
Rachael Long 14, 10, 140.0, .600
Danielle Masera 1, 17, 5.9, .059
Kaylee Groves 8, 11, 72.7, .273
Nicole Malzahn 11, 12, 91.7, .500
Jessica Knopik 6, 13, 46.2, .231
BENCH
Alexis Long 4, 6, 66.7, .333

TRENCH PLAYER
Jenny Ramey

BY THE NUMBERS
New Life 49, 70, 70.0, .343
Maranatha 44, 69, 63.8, .304
made 3s: NL 5, Maranatha 5
made fts: Maranatha 9, NL 8
bench: NL 17, Maranatha 2

DEFENSIVE WRAPS
d rebounds, steals, forced turnovers, & blocks leading to offensive possessions
NEW LIFE
Jenny Ramey 9.5
Cara Lutes 7
Rebekah Schmidt 5
Kristin Stein 4.5
Danielle Cathey 4
Sarah Nisleith 3
Danielle Schmidt 3
Olivia Mann 2
Melissa Mueller 1
totals 39

MARANATHA
Danielle Masera 10
Rachael Long 10
Nicole Malzahn 7
Jessica Knopik 3
Alexis Long 2
totals: 32

Next up: tomorrow morning