WINONA LAKE - The Grace College women's basketball team is having one of its better seasons in recent years, but a win over a top-10 team would go a long way. Saturday at the Orthopaedic Capital Center, that objective wasn't accomplished.Hosting the eighth-ranked St. Francis Lady Cougars (17-4, 6-1 Mid-Central Conference), the Grace College Lady Lancers (12-8, 3-4 MCC) started strong, but fell 64-43.
"We want to beat every team, but we haven't beaten St. Francis in the seven years I've been here," Grace coach Scott Blum said. "For us, it would be a big win. They've been at the top of our conference every since I've been here, and they're ranked in the top 10."
One of the reasons for St. Francis' success has been senior Julie Seiss, a Warsaw Community High School graduate.
This season, Seiss is averaging 15 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals for the Lady Cougars, and those number continued against Grace, as she had 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Seiss also had six rebounds, four steals and three assists.
"Julie's playing awesome," St. Francis coach Gary Andrews said. "She's such a great all-around player. She can score, handle the ball, pass, play defense. We're really going to miss her next year."
With Seiss, along with the MCC's leading scorer Kayla Mullins on the roster, St. Francis may be able to duplicate what their male counterparts did a year ago - win the NAIA Division II national championship.
"I think we're right there," Seiss said. "We just beat the No. 6 team (Indiana Wesleyan) Wednesday, so I think we have the talent to go all the way. We just have to play well come tournament time."
Accompanying Seiss' production against Grace was Mullins' 17 points and 10 points from Bianca Woods, as the MCC's top offensive team, at 75 points a game, was held in check early.
Through the first five minutes of the game, Grace held a 10-2 lead, but over the next 10 minutes, the Lady Cougars used a 20-2 run to gain control of the game.
"We had a good gameplan, and we came out and executed it in the first few minutes, when it was 10-2," Blum said. "We came out, wanted to slow the tempo and keep the game under 65 points.
"They call the timeout, then come out with a kind of three-quarters, soft-type press and then we start throwing passes we don't throw in practice," he added. "That gave them some momentum and sped the game up."
With the game sped up, the Lady Lancers gradually lost confidence in their offensive game, even though they were facing the second-worst defense in the MCC.
"For some reason, when our offense goes south, our defense goes south," Blum said.
Along with struggling to get points against St. Francis, Grace, which is second the conference in rebounding, was outrebounded by one of the MCC's worst rebounding teams 35-33.
"To be able to outrebounded them is pretty impressive, because they are a great rebounding team," Andrews said. "So, I'm really happy with that. I thought our defense was really good too."
Blum credited his team's offensive woes, which included 26-percent shooting, for the poor rebounding performance.
"We outrebound most teams, but we get after it a little bit more than we did today," Blum said. "Our offensive ball wasn't going in the basket, so when that happens, we kind of start putting our heads down and stop doing the little things that have helped us be successful this year."
The game was Grace's last one in the OCC for the three weeks, as their next four are all on the road, beginning at Indiana Wesleyan Wednesday.
"The road doesn't get any easier," Blum said. "Hopefully, we'll rebound from this and learn from this."
