Despite showing significant improvement in the turnover category, the Manhattan Christian College Thunder ruined the Warriors chances at a road win with a 90-74 victory on Tuesday night in Manhattan.
“We just didn’t make the defensive plays we needed to win tonight,” Coach Matt Sanders said. “MCC was able to shoot 65% from the field against us in the second half. That just will not get it done. They made key shots and we made mistakes throughout that last half and it made the difference. We give credit to Manhattan. They won a tough game on their home floor.”
Next up, the Warriors will travel to Haviland for a matchup against Barclay College next Friday night.
Turnovers were the story of the day for Calvary as the Warriors allowed Kansas Christian to cause 30 of them during a 89-75 loss to the Falcons at The Pyramid Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon. “I don’t care who you play, when you allow the other team 30 more chances you are going to lose,” Calvary Head Coach Matt Sanders said. “We played well defensively in the half court, but we let them get too many easy layups.”
The Warriors came into the game after a tough week. The team was looking to gain some of their earlier momentum against the #6 NCCAA II team in the country. The Warriors came out and got down fast as the game started. They turned it over a number of times from the start and the score was quickly 7-17. Braydon Unruh and Ques Harris got in foul trouble during the first half. Zeb Green had to play a lot of minutes and got tired at the end of the half. Because of the adversity, Kansas Christian went into the locker room up by 22 points at the half.
Calvary came out as the second half started and put their heads down, played together, and never quit. They got the 22 point deficit down to 11 several times but never managed to get it closer. “Zeb played well,” stated Sanders. “Defensively he caused issues. He struggled to finish in the first half, but he also caused their big guy to get in foul trouble. Braydon and Ques played well. Tim Marchbanks was the story of the game for us. He was solid and played as a junior should. Jay handled their pressure well. We have got to find a way to get him shots.”
Calvary has a quick turnaround before a big game Tuesday in Manhattan. “We do a good job with defensive FG percentage and if we can figure out how to stop turning the ball over we would be much improved said Sanders.”
“I was proud of our effort,” said guard Braydon
Unruh. “I thought our execution on offense was pretty good. Our half-court defense was very good. To be honest I thought that might have been
our best game of the year in every area except turnovers. A lot of that is on me. I was trying to force passes instead of
looking for the simple play.”
“Overall we played well tonight against a top ten program minus the turnovers,” Coach Sanders said. “We just need to learn from this and get ready for another game Tuesday.” Next up, the Warriors will be back in action on Tuesday as the team travels to Manhattan, Kansas for a matchup against conference opponent Manhattan Christian College.
The Calvary University Lady
Warriors defeated the Kansas Christian College Falcons in a close battle
Saturday afternoon. With a final score of 66-65, the Lady Warriors improved
their season record to 14-2.
Tremendous defense from both the Warriors
and the Falcons resulted in a low scoring first half, but with 53% shooting
from the field, the Lady Warriors were able to go into halftime with a seven point
advantage. “Both teams came out ready to play in the first half,” said guard
Hannah Sorensen. “It took a lot of mental strength, but we were able to stay
poised which really helped us to gain the lead going into halftime.”
Calvary University started the
second half with cold shooting, giving the Falcons a 12 point lead with eight
minutes remaining. A strong 1-2-2 zone as well as the ability to score under
the basket got the Lady Warriors back into the game. “We did a really good job
of creating open looks with good ball movement and finding the open person.” said
Coach Shoemaker. “We had some really good passes into the post, which allowed
our forwards to score effectively.” With 20 seconds remaining, and the Warriors
down by one, Lynzee Faulkner hit a clutch shot underneath the goal to go up by
one point. This ended up being the winning
basket.
Anna Holloway led the Warriors with
23 points and 13 rebounds. Strong rebounding from both Bethelann Manson and
Lynzee Faulkner, as well as some key rebounds from Shalom Sutcliffe in the
final minutes were also crucial. Taylor Hunter finished with 17 points and five
steals. Hunter passed the school record for most three point shots made in a
season in tonight’s win.
The Lady Warriors will go on the
road next Tuesday to play against Manhattan Christian College at 5:00 PM.
The Lady Warriors carried their
momentum from their NAIA win from last Friday into tonight’s game against the
Union College Warriors. “Going into the game, our mentality was to run our own
tempo and not let the other team affect the tempo,” said forward Lynzee
Faulkner. Calvary University opened the game with a 30-2 run on Union College.
The Warriors man-to-man defense only allowed Union to score 7 points in the 2nd
quarter, giving the Warriors a halftime lead of 54-9.
“At halftime, we made goals to
improve areas in our transition offense, and our man-to-man defense, and they
executed those goals in the 2nd half,” Coach Shoemaker said.
The Lady Warrior’s defense did not
let up at all, limiting Union College to just 16 points in the second half.
Calvary’s halftime adjustments propelled them to an impressive 86-25 victory.
“The key factor to tonight’s win
was that we ran our offense effectively,” Coach Shoemaker said. “We passed the
ball very well and created a lot of open looks with our ball movement.”
Taylor Hunter led the Warriors with
25 points, while Anna Holloway scored 18. Lynzee Faulkner finished with a
season high of 10 points, and Tori Stahr shot well from beyond the arc,
finishing with 11 points.
“Our mentality moving forward is
that we will continue to push each other in practice as we prepare for the
tournaments coming up and continue to improve on our weaknesses,” said Coach
Shoemaker. The Lady
Warriors will take the court again this Saturday afternoon at 2 PM against
Kansas Christian College.
The Calvary women’s basketball team continued their January marathon at home Friday night as they welcomed the Cottey College Comets to the Pyramid. The first quarter was quite close as both teams were feeling each other out. The Warriors did start to pull away in the second quarter by holding the Comets to just six points. The Warriors went into halftime with a 39-21 lead and then went on to finish with a well played victory over the NAIA Comets 67-56.
At the start of the second half, Cottey was able to start chipping away at the Warriors 18 point lead with second chance points under the basket. Cottey came to within five points of the Warriors with four minutes to go in the game. Tori Stahr, Taylor Hunter, and Anna Holloway led the Warriors down the stretch with some clutch shooting that assured the 11 point victory. “We have had a rough week with injuries and sickness but these girls put all of it aside and became competitors tonight,” said Coach Tressa Shoemaker. “Holding Cottey to six points in the 2nd quarter to get that 18 point lead was big for us. I’m really happy with how we played overall. We have lots to work on, but also a lot of positives to take away.”
The Lady Warriors are now 12-2 and will see their next action Thursday night as the team will welcome Union College at 6 p.m.
