Women's Basketball Weekend Recap | February 11, 2018
The Lakeland Rustlers Women's Basketball team split their games against the Augustana Vikings on the weekend, with each team winning on their home court. Friday night in Camrose, the Vikings defeated the Rustlers 70-59, but the Rustlers responded Saturday night and pulled out a 77-74 win.
The Rustlers came out to a strong start Friday night, as they led 22-7 after the first quarter. The wheels fell off the bus for the Rustlers in the second quarter as they would only score 6 points in the quarter while allowing the Vikings to score 27. The Vikings applied full-court pressure that the Rustlers struggled with, forcing them to turn over the ball and beat the Rustlers to loose balls. At the half, the Rustlers found themselves down 34-28.
The Rustlers found some solutions to their problems in the third quarter, with improved rebounding at both ends of the court and forcing the Vikings into tougher shots, but still found themselves down 51-46 heading into the fourth. In the fourth quarter, the Rustlers ran out of gas and could not get the consecutive stops needed to overcome the deficit, losing the game 70-59.
The Rustlers were led by 1st-year guard Kaitlyn Tonita with 16 points, seven rebounds, an assist, and a steal, earning her Player of the Game honors. The Rustlers also got 14 points, two rebounds and an assist from 1st-year forward Bailey Johnson while 4th year forward Anna Mbuyi added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The Rustlers bounced back from their loss Saturday night, as they defeated the Vikings 77-74. The Rustlers found themselves down 5-0 early and then 16-6 midway through the first quarter. The Rustlers struggled continued for the entirety of the quarter as they found themselves down 22-9 after one. In the second quarter, the Rustlers came out aggressive but struggled to finish. They improved on the defensive end and were able to cut the Vikings lead to 34-28 at the half. The teams would trade baskets to start the third quarter with the Rustlers cutting the Vikings lead to 4.
With a minute left in the quarter, the Rustlers found themselves down one, but the Vikings finished the third strong to take a 59-53 lead into the fourth. In the fourth quarter, the Rustlers would battle hard to win on their home court. The Rustlers took a 3 point lead with 5 minutes left, which they extended to 5 with less than two minutes remaining. The Vikings could not overcome the late deficit as the Rustlers came away with the 77-74 win.
The Rustlers got strong play from their starters, as three of them had at lead 17 points. Tonita once again led the Rustlers with 19 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal, while Johnson added 17 points and 16 rebounds, including nine offensive rebounds. 1st-Year guard Hailey Somers played well on both ends of the court for the Rustlers. She held the Vikings top scorer to half of her season average while scoring 18 points, dishing out three assists, grabbing two rebounds and having two steals of her own, earning her Player of the Game honors.
Rustlers point guard Tori Dugan, who has spent the season recovering from a torn ACL spoke to the media following the game Saturday about what she has seen from the season. "Consistency has been a really big problem with this team," Dugan said. "We haven't been able to pull out wins on Friday nights and then we are able to pull to together on Saturdays, which is good to get wins, but leading up to playoffs, it's not the momentum we need. We need to figure that out, we talk about it, but we need to figure out how to put our words into actions."
The Rustlers move to 14-6 after the weekend and sit in second place in the North Division, with four games remaining in the season.
The Rustlers take on the King's Eagles next weekend, before wrapping up their season the following weekend against the Concordia Thunder. The Rustlers two remaining home games are on Friday, February 16th, and Friday, February 23rd. Both games are set to begin at 6: pm.