Belles pull off upset in final game against Kalamazoo
By JOE HETTLER
Sports Writer
Saint Mary's basketball team waited until their last regular season game to capture their biggest win of the season.
Led by freshman Emily Creachbaum's 13 points and solid contributions from nearly everyone else, the Belles avenged their earlier season loss to Kalamazoo by beating the Hornets 66-53.
After a slow start the Belles rallied to tie the game heading into halftime.
"We started kind of slow and it was pretty close throughout the first half," said Belles head coach Suzanne Smith. "We were down by six or seven right before halftime and we went on a little run to tie it at half. The team felt pretty confident at halftime."
The Belles exploded in the second half en route to outscoring the Hornets 37-24.
"We came out and just took over and acted confident and just did the little things right," said Smith.
Saint Mary's distributed the scoring around with only Creachbaum reaching double figures, but several had between six and nine points.
Amanda Weishuhn's 17 points led Kalamazoo while Alissa Johnston added 11 points.
But this day belonged to the Belles, who wanted to send their seniors out with a win in their last home game.
The Belles shut down three-time Player of the Week Nikki Grub, holding her to only eight points on 3-10 shooting from the field. Saint Mary's also held the Hornets to 33 percent shooting as a team and 20 percent from 3-point land.
By the end of the game though, both seniors, Jamie Dineen and Anne Blair fouled out. Fortunately for the players, the rest of their team did not let them down.
"Jamie and myself both had a lot of fouls at the end of the game and so the girls wanted to step it up and they kept saying, `Do it for Anne, do it for Anne,'" said Blair. "So it was cool to see them play so hard for us in our last game."
With the win the Belles secured sixth-place in the MIAA and will face third seeded Adrian at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 19.
"It was a huge win for us being able to come back from Wednesday when we did not play well at all," said Smith. "They kind of used each other's energy, especially the seniors knowing it was their last opportunity playing on their home court. I think they really used that and took it to the game."
Smith said that seniors Anne Blair and Jamie Dineen deserved a win in their final home game as Saint Mary's basketball players.
"It's a very great memory for them to take with them," said Smith.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 18, 2002
