The Elizabethtown College women’s basketball team’s dreams of a chance to fight for a conference championship fell through Wednesday night. The Blue Jays lost in the Commonwealth Conference semifinal game to the Messiah College Falcons, 58-48. Etown came into the game with a four-game win streak, but Messiah, ranked No. 1 in the tournament, was able to capture the victory, sealing their return to the championship game for the third time in the past four seasons. Junior Taylor Krieder picked up her 17th double double of the season with 15 points and 17 rebounds.
The Blue Jays started off their playoff run strong with a commanding 72-55 win over the Lycoming College Warriors Monday night. Etown is the No. 4 seed and benefited from their home court advantage against the No. 5 Warriors. Kreider had another standout performance with 19 points and 17 rebounds. If Kreider picked up four more rebounds, she would have registered a triple-double.
After a few minutes into the game, Etown started increasing their lead over Lycoming. By halftime, the Jays had a comfortable 38-26 lead. The Warriors tried leading a comeback right after halftime and pulled within seven. The two teams continued to exchange baskets, keeping the point margin around ten points. In the last six minutes of the half, the Blue Jays increased their scoring power and kept Lycoming’s dreams of an upset way out of reach.
Before the game, Head Coach Sherri Gorman was very optimistic about the game. “We’ve battled both games with Lycoming; they beat us here on our home court at the end of the game and we went up there and beat them by two or three points at the end of the game,” Gorman said. “They are a much different type of a team but yet the way we face off against each other I expect it to be a very tight and good game.”
Kreider was optimistic as well, saying, “I hope that we do really well; we beat number one ranked Messiah as an upset so hopefully we come up against them again and hopefully we can upset them again and take the Conference.”
The Blue Jays finished their regular season off strong with a 60-53 win over the Albright College Lions 60-53 Saturday, Feb. 16. The team kicked off the game by celebrating seniors Katy Fogel and Nadine Yunginger. After family and friends exchanged balloons, flowers and hugs with their favorite athletes, the game began. The starting players for Etown included Kreider, junior Kendra Beittel, sophomore Taylor Alwine and Fogel and Yunginger. When the referee tossed the ball into the air, the Albright Lions received the tip off and scored first. However, shortly after Albright scored, Fogel made the first shot for the Jays.
Kreider completed an impressive 18 points and logged 11 rebounds for the Jays. First-year Rachel Forjan also helped to lead the Jays with 11 points. Beittel, Yunginger, Forjan and Fogel all scored 3-point shots. Forjan’s 3-point shot raised the Jays’ score from 24 to 27 toward the end of the first half. The Jays’ fierce offensive skills put them ahead in the first half. The women’s basketball team ended the first half against Albright in the lead with 35-23. Gorman was very pleased with the game results. “We expected a good game,” Gorman said. “They are a very good team; they’ve got some size on us so we expected that but I was happy with how our kids played.” She said that earlier this season the Jays beat Albright by two points, so they expected to do well against the Lions. Fogel was excited about the turnout and the team’s strategy. “I thought it was a good segue into our playoffs,” she said. “We worked on a couple different things that I think we’re going to use in our playoff games. It was a fun day all around.”