Thiel women, Grove City men winners in twinbill

By Bill Albright

GROVE CITY — It was an split for the Thiel and Grove City basketball teams as the Thiel women won, 54-44, before the Grove City men pulled away for a 75-68 win.

In the nightcap, Grove City opened the game with a 10-2 run, Thiel cut its deficit to a single point, but again the Wolverines gave themselves some space as they took a 34-27 lead at halftime.

The Wolverines threatened to blow the game wide open at the outset of the second half with an 11-3 run, but the Tomcats (1-15, 0-6) clawed their way back for a 49-all tie with eight minutes left with a 19-4 run of their own.

“It [the lead] evaporated quick,” said GCC coach Steve Lamie. “They got hot from all over. They were making 3s and we didn’t adjust to anything. We did call a time out, but as it turned out, it was of no use. They [Thiel] aren’t going to give up and we have had wide swings in many of our games this season.”

Thiel coach Tim Loomis felt it was a matter of not competing for the entire 40 minutes that hurt his club.

“I thought we competed for about 36 or 37 minutes,” said Loomis. “But there were a couple of stretches of about a minute or so where we didn’t compete and they hurt us. That was the difference in the game.”

For Grove City (9-6, 4-2), Joe McCoy was perfect with four 3s and 4-for-4 from the line for 16 points.

“We just stood there and watched him [McCoy] shoot that set shot,” lamented Loomis. “You know coming in what he is going to do and we did nothing about it. That along with pinning us in the paint were the big keys for us in the loss.”

Ryan Gibson and Andy O’Keefe combined for 13 points to spark GCC to an five-point lead with 1:44 left and that is as close as Thiel would get.

“Down the stretch for the last six minutes, those are the two guys who carried us on the offensive end of the floor,” said Lamie. “We tried to get the ball to them in scoring situations to let them go to work and that obviously helped us in the end.”

Gibson finished with 19 points and O’Keefe scored 16. For Thiel, Sean Devinney came off the bench to lead the way with 19 points, while Nick Sefscik added 17 and Cory Chaffee 15.

In the women’s game, it only took 15 minutes to more or less decide the issue.

Grove City (6-10, 3-4) held a one-point lead at halftime, but Thiel held the Wolverines scoreless for the opening eight minutes of the second period and only allowed GCC six points in the first 15 minutes.

“That [defense] has been our focus throughout the whole year,” said Thiel coach Artina Trader. “We actually started to play together these last four games and that is the effort it takes against Grove City because they do things so well. For us to be able to defend them that well says a lot for what we are doing.”

GCC coach Sarah Harris also felt the Thiel defense was the big difference in the game.

“We are not a strong offensive team and tonight, we really struggled to score,” she said. “We are not a great shooting team so we have to crash the boards. They switched every screen and we didn’t respond well. We played soft, they didn’t and that was the big difference.”

The first half featured a scoring battle between Thiel’s Amber Bodrick and Grove City’s Christine Slater with Bodrick holding a 15-14 edge in points.

For the game Bodrick (Mooney) finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots despite suffering from the flu.

“I really didn’t have a plan coming in,” said Bodrick. “I have been in a slump of late because I haven’t been feeling well and had a lot of stuff going on.”

Slater turned in a double-double with 11 rebounds to go along with her 25 points.