KERRVILLE, Texas – Senior Naomi Brown scored the go-ahead basket with 12 seconds remaining and the Southwestern University Pirates women's basketball team made one last defensive stand to defeat the Colorado College Tigers 74-73 in the first round of the SCAC Tournament.
Cecily Woolfolk led three Pirates in double figures, dominating the Colorado College frontcourt with 23 points, shooting 7-for-13 from the field and 9-for-12 from the free-throw line while grabbing 12 rebounds, including four offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter to help the Pirates overcome an eight-point deficit.
"We never gave up, we kept fighting, we knew we weren't losing," Woolfolk said. "Earlier in the season, we might have gotten a little shaky but tonight we remained calm the entire 40 minutes."
Southwestern set the tone on the defensive end in the first quarter, limiting Colorado College to just 2-for-11 shooting and only two 3-point attempts with seven turnovers.
The Pirates played defense on a string, rotating whenever a Tiger tried to pull at the seams. Every Tiger was forced to play in a crowd as Noel Pratts and Zhazze Brown dug on dribble penetration, making quick, disruptive swipes and recovering to their own assignments.
On the other end, Woolfolk worked inside for seven points on 3-for-5 shooting to give the Pirates a 16-8 lead after the first quarter.
"We've practiced guarding them for the last two weeks since we played them last week," Head Coach Greta Grothe said, referring to the Pirates' 73-65 regular season win over the Tigers a week ago. "We tried to make them shoot twos and guarded the 3-point line very well.
"McKenzee Gertz is probably one of the best players in the league so we knew she was going to get hers, we just tried to make sure no one else got going."
Trouble appeared to strike early in the second quarter when Woolfolk picked up her second foul at the 7:16 mark, going to the bench with a 19-10 lead. Senior point guard picked up the slack, however, attacking the Tigers' defense with new aggression off the bounce, scoring six points on three shots in the quarter.
More importantly, by forcing Colorado College rotations, Brown put the Pirates' passing in motion, setting up a hockey assist on a Lauren Fulenwider 3-pointer and distorting the defense enough to give Erin Toro space for an offensive rebound and layup after an Emma Lewis missed 3-pointer.
"Senior. Zhazze Brown is a senior. She had big moments and our senior leadership really stepped up," Grothe said. "They weren't going to lose. Period. I knew it from the moment they woke up."
Disaster did set in late in the half when Woolfolk picked up her third foul, swiping at Rosie Braley from behind after Colorado College perfectly executed a pick-and-roll with five seconds remaining. Braley hit one-of-two to bring the Tigers within 32-25 at the half. More importantly, the moment set the stage for the third quarter.
With three fouls, Woolfolk played six cautious minutes in the third quarter as Colorado College put together a 26-17 run.
Jordan Meltzer and Gertz combined for 14 points in the quarter and Talia Cloud had six off the bench as the Tigers shot 8-for-15 (53.3 percent) to take a 51-49 lead going into the fourth.
Gertz opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to five and, after a pair of Anna Faneli free throws, drained another jumper to put Colorado College up 57-49. After Woolfolk answered with a layup and foul for an old-fashioned three-point play, Gertz pulled down an offensive rebound and found Cloud for a jumper and a 59-52 lead.
Tensions seemed high when Grothe took a timeout with 6:47 remaining and the Pirates trailing by five. In the huddle, she implored her players to keep shooting when open, no matter the outcome.
After a pair of Gertz free throws, Lauren Fulenwider drained a 3-pointer to keep the Pirates within four. More importantly, as Woolfolk fouled out two of the Tigers' forwards, the rebounding battle titled in the Pirates' favor, pulling down six in the fourth quarter.
"We were winning the glass at the point," Grothe said. "Even if we missed, we knew Naomi or Cecily were going to get the rebound and that's what happened."
The lead changed several times over the final minute with Gertz draining a jumper with 17 seconds remaining to score her ninth point in the quarter, giving Colorado College a 73-72 lead headed into the Pirates' final possession.
Grothe drew up a play for Woolfolk in the huddle but the Pirates' star center made an audible on the court, noticing she had a double team to start the play and clearing out to give Naomi Brown the ball with a mismatch; leading to Brown's sweeping left-handed layup.
"We practice that play every single day, we draw it up every single day," Grothe said. "But Cecily saw she had two on her right away so she set a back screen and we got it to Naomi and she scored.
"Cecily was not going to lose. She saw the mismatch to get Naomi open and she doesn't care who takes the last shot, she just wants to win."
With the win, the Pirates improve to 11-15 on the season and 9-10 against conference opponents. Southwestern will face Austin College on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.