WINONA LAKE - The Grace College Lady Lancers gave the sixth-ranked Indiana Wesleyan Lady Wildcats a scare, but that was all.
Hanging on to a slight 18-17 lead late in the first half, Wesleyan (18-3, 7-0 Mid-Central College Conference) proceeded to use a 14-1 run to pull away for a 57-40 win over the Lancers (7-14, 3-5 MCC) in women's college basketball action at the Orthopaedic Capital Center Saturday afternoon."I knew they would come out and play with a little more intensity," Grace head coach Scott Blum said of Wesleyan's play after the half. "I don't think (Wesleyan) coach (Steve) Brooks was happy with their play in the first half, with only being up by seven."
Grace stayed close to Wesleyan in the opening half by using a pressure defense the Wildcats hadn't expected, forcing nine turnovers.
"We had not seen the trapping on tape, and our kids didn't adjust to it too well," Brooks said. "Scott (Blum) just does a good job. He'll play us different every time, and we hadn't seen that, and hadn't prepared for it."
In the second half, Wesleyan was able to get back into the offense, resulting in easy buckets near the basket and 13-of-27 shooting in the final 20 minutes.
"We wanted to speed up their tempo," Blum said. "They like to play a more methodical, walk the ball up and pass the ball around about five, six, seven times, then score on a layup."
Plymouth High School-product Elaine Hessel was the biggest beneficiary of those buckets. The conference's leader in field goal percentage hit 7 of her 11 shots for a game-high 15 points, four off her MCC-leading average of 19 points per game.
The game featured two other Northern Lakes Conference players in freshmen Lyzz Smith (Plymouth) and Taylor Goshert (Wawasee).
"It's good to be back home, because I miss it a lot," Goshert said of returning to Kosciusko County. "It's also good to be able to play in front of a bunch of people I recognize."
The two-time Times-Union All-Area Player of the Year hasn't been seeing the minutes she received during her prep days, but that's okay with her.
"It's a total team effort," she said. "Right now, our team is pretty well equipped and we're playing well together. It's not people fighting over minutes. It's more of worrying about what we have to do to get the job done."
And considering Wesleyan is the top team in the MCC, and among the best in the nation, Goshert's time will come with work.
"She's doing really great - we love her," Brooks said of Goshert, who had two points and five rebounds in the win. "She's our Energizer Bunny. She's comes in and gives us so much energy. She just has a knack for making plays. She's just going to get better and better."
After playing an uptempo game at Wawasee, Goshert is also learning to slow things down in the Wildcats offense.
"It was tough to adjust, but now it's getting a little easier," Goshert said.
Another local product in the game was Grace freshman Emily Bidwell, a 2009 Whitko High School graduate.
Cracking the starting lineup for the Lady Lancers, Bidwell finished the game with eight points, five rebounds and two assists.
"She's just been a blessing," Blum said of Bidwell. "She's worked hard all year, so she's worked her way into the starting lineup. I don't expect a lot of her scoring-wise, but I didn't really expect that when I recruited her. Now, her sophomore and junior years, she's probably going to have to do more of that."
Bidwell's eight points tied a team-high with sophomores Kayla Skaggs and Danielle Boykin.
Things don't get too much easier for the Lady Lancers, who travel to Mishawaka to face No. 18 Bethel College Saturday at 1 p.m.
"We're young," Blum said. "We have one senior, so we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and only one junior. We just have to keep plugging along."
