Hastings Goes Cold Down the Stretch in Loss to No. 8 Concordia
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Concordia (NE) (13-2, 9-2) | 17 | 15 | 17 | 21 | 70 |
|
Hastings (8-8, 4-6) | 20 | 19 | 13 | 5 | 57 |
Hastings, NE – The Hastings College women's basketball team played right with and even out played NAIA No. 8 Concordia for three quarters but ended up losing 70-57 on Wednesday night inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
The first quarter was a solid back-and-forth contest with neither team leading by more than one possession as the Lady Broncos took a 20-17 lead into the second quarter with Bailey Kissinger making a layup right before the buzzer sounded.
HC then grew the lead to eight points behind another Kissinger layup followed by a Mariyah Avila layup that made it 29-21 early in the second quarter. Hastings would not relinquish that lead and took a 39-32 lead into the break after Miriam Miller beat the buzzer with a jumper.
Concordia quickly closed the gap to just two at 42-40 but a Kiernana Paulk free throw followed by a Lexi Kraft 3-pointer made it 46-40 with 5:31 to go in the third. HC had the lead back up to eight at 50-42 following two Miller free throws but CUNE closed the quarter on a 7-2 run as Hastings clung to a 52-49 lead heading to the final quarter.
It was here that the full court press from the Bulldogs seemed to take its toll on Hastings as the Lady Broncos shot just 14 percent in the quarter and scored just five points as CUNE avoided the upset with the 70-57 win.
Kissinger led the way for Hastings with 14 points as she was 5-for-7 from the floor. Miller added 12 points as she was 3-for-4 from the floor and 6-of-8 from the line. Paulk finished with 11 points and six boards with Kraft adding eight points and Avila finishing with seven.
Hastings finished the game shooting 40 percent (18-for-45) while CUNE shot 48.3 percent (28-for-58). The difference in the game ended up being points off turnovers in that fourth quarter as the game ended with CUNE scoring 26 points off 20 turnovers compared to 14 points off 16 turnovers for HC. Rebounds were pretty even as the Bulldogs edged out the Lady Broncos 32-to-30.
Hastings is now 8-8 (4-6) on the year and will be back in action Saturday Jan. 20 as No. 1 Dordt comes to town with tipoff set for 2:00 pm inside Lynn Farrell Arena.
