Jimmies women's hoops get 59-53 upset win over The Master's

Mar. 15—LEWISTON, Idaho — The No. 11-seeded University of Jamestown got clutch baskets down the stretch to pull off the upset in a 59-53 over No. 5-seeded The Master's College (Calif.) in the first round of the NAIA tournament on Friday, March 15, at Lewis and Clark State's P1FCU Activity Center.

The Jimmies (18-12) sprinted out of the gates to an 11-2 lead before the Mustangs went on a run to cut the deficit to 11-8. The Jimmies were able to hold off a late first-quarter run to head into the second up 23-18.

The Jimmies were able to push the lead out to double digits at 32-22 midway through the second on a Samantha Paulsen three. The Jimmies were able to take a seven-point lead into the half thanks to an Audrey Rodakowski jumper to go up 34-27.

Out of the Jimmies' 34 points in the first half, 22 were scored by either Rodakowski or Kia Tower.

The Jimmies' defense put on a show in the third quarter as they forced the Mustangs to start 0-for-4, with four turnovers as the Jimmies' lead went out to 40-27.

"That was a great effort," Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said. "We talked at halftime about how committed we had to be to get to 24, to get to her body off box outs and post coverages and rotations to drive. We had to make a little bit of an adjustment at halftime with her because she's such a big target for them off her drives and offensive rebounding. So, that was a huge emphasis for us but it's one thing to say hey this is what we want to do and it's another thing to do it. I thought our players did a great job of executing that and battling it out."

The Mustangs ended their drought with 5:50 to go in the frame on an Isabela Hernandez layup to cut the deficit to 40-29. The Jimmies immediately respond to push the lead back out to 13 points but the Mustangs would not go down without a fight cutting the deficit to 49-46 midway through the fourth quarter.

The Jimmies' Kate Cordes responded with a jumper to push the lead out to 51-46 and moments later had two of the biggest possessions of the game. There was a media timeout with 4:44 to go in the game with the Jimmies up 51-46. After the timeout, Tower hit a layup, got a steal at the timeline and hit another layup to push the lead out to 55-46. The second layup also made history as it moved Tower into first place on the Jimmies' all-time scoring list with 1,802 career points, passing Keri Bakker's 1,801 career points. Tower finished the game with 17 points.

"It's a cool accomplishment but it's definitely something that I just give credit to this program, my teammates, my coaches, that's not something you can accomplish without them being on your side and the work we put in as a whole group," Tower said. "It's awesome but honestly I have to give so much of the credit to my girls' and of course the coaching staff."

After the Mustangs (25-7) cut the deficit to 56-50, the Jimmies' Cordes hit another huge basket as she hit a free throw line jumper to push the lead out to 58-50 with 50.1 seconds to go and immediately fist bumped and screamed and as the Mustangs called a timeout, Tower shoved her sophomore teammate with excitement.

"It's just being a fifth-year senior, I've wanted to focus on pouring into my teammates and lifting them up," Tower said. "Kate Cordes is such a talented player for our team, she's so, so important for us. She makes big plays for us, important, crucial plays and she had a lot of shots that didn't fall tonight that she normally hits and I just kept telling her, 'you keep shooting, keep believing, they're gonna fall.' That's exactly what she did, she hit a clutch, clutch shot for us. So, I was just pouring into her in that aspect."

The Mustangs still had a chance to fight back late but they airballed a three with 5.1 seconds to go down 59-53 to end the game.

The Jimmies are back in action at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, when they take on No. 4-seeded Lewis-Clark State College.

UJ 59, TMC 53

UJ: 23 11 13 12 — 59

TMC: 18 9 11 15 — 53

Points leaders:

UJ: Audrey Rodakowski 20, Kia Tower 17, Samantha Paulsen 9

TMC: Lexi Hernandez 13, Madeline Cooke 12, Kelly Lotz 10

Assists leaders:

UJ: Tower 3, Cordes 2, Kate Busek 2, Jailyn Martinson 2, Paulsen 1, Megan Oswald 1

TMC: L. Hernandez 2, Nichole Chuange 2, Cooke 1, Isabela Hernandez 1, Marin Lenz 1

Leading rebounders:

UJ: Tower 7, Rodakowski 7, Busek 6, Cordes 4TMC: Cooke 12, L. Hernandez 9, Lotz 9, I. Hernandez 8