Bulldogs Stung At The Buzzer

Box Score

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Emporia State's Kelsey Balcom's three-pointer at the buzzer ended the Truman women's basketball season by a score 64-63 in the first round of the MIAA Postseason Tournament on Thursday night.

The 24th-ranked and third seeded Lady Hornets (20-7) trailed by two with 12 seconds left and out of a timeout Heather Robben found Balcom at the top of the arc and the sophomore knocked down just the third three-pointer of the night to advance Emporia to the semifinals in the tournament.

Truman (17-10) took an early six-point lead only to watch ESU score 12 straight midway through the first half and eventually take a 10-point lead at 31-21 with 2:26 left in the period. The Bulldogs countered with eight straight at the close of the half and start of the second to pull within two.

From there it was a dogfight as both teams slugged it out in the second half. Truman had five chances to take the lead until Allie Norton (Bloomington, Ill., Central Catholic) buried a triple to put Truman up 47-46 at the 9:42 mark.

The Lady Hornets would get a rare five-point play to retake the lead until Becka McHenry (Fraser, Mich., Fraser) completed a three-point play at the 3:47 mark to knot the score at 57.

The two teams exchanged baskets with Megan Sharpe (Edwardsville, Ill., Edwardsville) scoring the final of her career high 13 points to tie things back at 59 with 3:04 showing.

Following a miss, McHenry was fouled and made one of two to put Truman up and then following a steal by Sharpe, McHenry walked back to the line and knocked down two more for a three-point lead.
Rheanna Egli cut the margin to one with an offensive rebound and put back with a minute and a half left in the game.

Truman had two looks to push the lead back up to three but missed. Later, Balcom got a steal but Jocelyn Cummings missed the lay-up with McHenry grabbing the rebound and drawing the foul. She missed the first but hit the second setting up ESU for the last second heroics.

McHenry finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and eight assists while Sharpe scored 13, with 10 rebounds and five steals. Jennifer Conway (Waterloo, Ill., Waterloo) and Nicole Gloor (Overland Park, Kan., Blue Valley) also scored 10 points apiece.

Emporia was nearly perfect from the foul line going 17-of-18 and making all 13 attempts in the second half. The Lady Hornets also won the battle on the boards 34-27 with 14 offensive rebounds, 10 in the final 20 minutes.

Merissa Quick scored 20 for ESU while Robben and Balcom finished with 14 and 11 apiece.
Truman has its season come to an end with a record of 17-10, the most regular season wins since the 1999-2000 season.

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