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The women’s basketball team closed out the regular season last week. The team lost to Emporia State (58-65) on Thursday, Feb. 25 but bounced back against Newman (69-61) on Saturday, Feb. 27.
Against Emporia, Kaylee DaMitz scored 14 points with Tristan Gegg right behind her with 13. Maya Williams and Sydnee Crain added 11 points apiece.
“Well, I thought the Emporia State game, we came out just awesome,” Davied said. “We were really intentional, and the girls were really making good shots. Then second quarter, obviously when you play a good team, they’re gonna fight back and they really made a run on us… We did miss some rebounds, we allowed them some second chances that really hurt us in that second quarter. Then second half, it was neck and neck and then we just kind of let that one get away from us. But I thought… Sydnee Crain really had a great first half for us… played a good game and really got us off to a good start. Kaylee DaMitz (is) always consistent and just played outstanding…”
Against Newman, DaMitz led the Gorillas with 25 points and became the 24th player in the program’s history to reach 1,000 career points.
“Newman, that was a hard-fought battle,” Davied said. “It was senior day, it’s a lot of emotions, and they really came ready to play. It was their last game of the season. They knew they weren’t getting into the tournament. But in our league, everybody can beat everybody… We just didn’t get off to such a great start shooting but our defensive helped us… in the first half. Kaylee DaMitz, was really excited to see her get her thousandth point and to do it in a game where we really needed her to, that’s typically KD fashion to do it when she’s trying to do what’s best for her team… It was really cool to see her do that at home in front of her friends and family instead of being on the road…”
DaMitz, a junior in finance, thought the team battled hard in both games.
“…In both games, I think we had to play all forty minutes,” DaMitz said. “They were tough games. We lost against Emporia, but it came down to the end and they kind of squeezed one out on us. But I think we had really good effort in both games. (Against) Newman, I thought we were playing pretty good, and we were kind of missing some shots, so we battled through very well. We just didn’t quit playing. It was kind of a special game. It’s the last game of this season at JLA and… (it was) senior day…”
The Gorillas headed into the postseason MIAA tournament and will face Nebraska-Kearney in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, Mar. 3.
“Well, we want to be playing our best basketball,” Davied said. “We’ve been talking about that for a long time. We knew we had lost some games early that might come back to haunt us. So, our record really doesn’t show the style of basketball that we’ve been able to play throughout the season and really show our best basketball. So, that’s what tournament time is all about. Everybody’s 0-0, and we have three games that if we can win this tournament, we will have a chance to go to the national tournament. So, for us… we just want to be playing our best basketball right now as a group.”
DaMitz hopes to see the team give it their all in the tournament.
“Whenever you hit the tournament time, every game could be your last, so you just take one game at a time and you really just come together even stronger and play for each other and then everything else just kind of falls in place,” DaMitz said.
Nebraksa-Kearney knocked the Gorillas out of the MIAA tournament on Wednesday when they defeated PSU (66-50). The Lopers took the lead early on in the quarterfinals and carried it through to victory.
