Strong rebounding fueled the Calvary women’s basketball team to a 56-50 win over Manhattan Christian College Tuesday evening in Kansas City. The game started with Calvary jumping to a 6-0 lead. Manhattan quickly bounced back and took back the lead at the two minute mark of the first quarter. The first half was a close contest with the score being tied three times, and both teams exchanging the lead four times. At the close of the first half, the Lady Warriors headed into the locker room with a seven point lead over Manhattan.
The Warriors didn’t let go of the lead after halftime and used a combination of man-to-man defense, and a 1-2-2 zone to hold Manhattan to shooting only 30% from the field. Calvary’s largest lead of the game was by 15 in the fourth quarter. The Lady Warriors overcame Manhattan’s attempts to come back in the final minutes and won their ninth game in a row 56-50. Anna Holloway and Anna Davis both recorded double-doubles with 12 rebounds and 13 points each. Guards Shalom Sutcliffe and Taylor Hunter each had five key steals. As a team, the Lady Warriors grabbed 50 rebounds and forced 28 turnovers. “I am so proud of these girls. The heart and effort that they put into practices rewarded them today.” Coach Shoemaker said. “They don’t give up and they push each other to their limits which creates a hard-to-stop dynamic on the court both offensively and defensively.” The Lady Warriors will next face Faith Baptist Bible College on Friday night at 6:00 p.m.
The Warriors suffered their 8th loss of the season on Tuesday night as the Manhattan Christian Thunder seemingly couldn’t miss from the three-point line as they defeated Calvary 88-71. Manhattan shot an impressive 49% from three-point range.
“No matter what defense we played, we really had trouble locating their shooters,” Warrior Head Coach Matt Sanders said. The Warriors were mostly playing their man to man defense and the Thunder kept getting the ball into the lane which cause Calvary to be out of position and have to over help.
Calvary came out fast like they have all season long and went up by ten points early. But as the half moved on and fatigue set in, the Thunder came back to take a four-point lead into intermission.
In the second half, Manhattan came out and simply outplayed Calvary from the four-minute mark on through the rest of the game with the final score being 71-88.
“We need to remember that we are just now starting our conference season,” Coach Sanders said. “It’s important to keep that in our mind. We’re learning lessons with each of these games which will prepare us for what we’re going to face later on this season. Anything can happen yet.”
Braydon Unruh led the Warriors with 14 points on the night while Zeb Green finished with 12 points. Next up, the Warriors will be at home Friday night as they battle Faith Baptist Bible College.
The Calvary women’s basketball team shot 47% from the field in their 88-57 win over Ecclesia College, improving their winning streak to eight in a row. The Lady Warriors came out strong, starting the game with a 9-0 run and ended the first quarter with a 22-11 lead. The Warriors never gave up that lead throughout the game and held Ecclesia to 31 points in the first half by using their tough 1-2-2 zone.
“It was very exciting to have such a good first half,” guard Shalom Sutcliffe said. “We went into the game with a really focused mindset. I have to give a lot of credit to the coaches for pushing us in practice so that we could come out so strong.”
The Warriors carried their momentum into the second half by holding Ecclesia to just 9 points in the third quarter with a strong man to man defense, finishing the third quarter 66-40. Forward Anna Holloway scored a career high 30 points while Taylor Hunter added 18. Haylee Evans contributed nine points off the bench tonight, shooting 3 for 4 from beyond the arc. The Warriors proved how deep their 2019 bench is with every player on the roster scoring in tonight’s win.
“I am really proud of the girls being able to come off Christmas break shooting 47% from the field.” Coach Shoemaker said. “We made it a goal to get 50 rebounds and we ended with 54. They worked hard in the practices leading up to this game and it showed on the court.”
The Warriors improved to 8-1, and scored a game high of 88 points for the season. The next 7 of 8 games on the schedule for the month of January will be played at home.
Despite a valiant second half run from the CU Warriors, a late second half rally fueled the Ecclesia College Royals to a 98-88 victory in The Pyramid Athletic Center on Saturday afternoon. “We played really well for that ten minute stretch in the second half,” said Warrior Head Coach Matt Sanders. “It was encouraging to see how good our bench was tonight. We had great contributions from Drake Griebel, Ben Jones, and Tobias Welling.”
Braydon Unruh and Ques Harris led the way for the Warriors scoring 16 points each. “Our turnovers were the difference,” stated Sanders. “We have to be better with the ball against pressure.” With the loss, the Warriors fall to 4-6 on the season.
Next up the Warriors welcome Champion Christian College to campus on January 11. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00.
It was a memorable chapter in the rivalry between the Calvary Warriors and the Ecclesia Royals on Friday evening as Ecclesia rallied late to defeat Calvary 64-62 in Springdale, Arkansas. Zeb Green led the Warriors with 15 points. Jay Lems added 13 and Braydon Unruh chipped in with 11 as the team fell to 4-5 on the season.
“They made more plays than we did down the stretch,” Warriors Head Coach Matt Sanders said. “We’ve had a tough week but I believe in the resilience of these men and their ability to move on and use this week to learn and continue to prepare for our conference season that begins to move rapidly in January.”
“We have a short turn around before our exhibition game in Bartlesville on Monday,” Sanders said. “We will learn from this and continue to dig in as we move forward.”
The Warriors will face Oklahoma Wesleyan University on Monday in the exhibition match-up.
