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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The Observer

Flying Dutch soar over Belles

On Wednesday, Saint Mary's fell by 23 points to the MIAA's second-place team, Calvin, in their worst loss of the season. Things didn't turn around much when they played division leader Hope on Saturday.In the 92-72 loss, Hope outscored Saint Mary's by 18 points in the first half and the Belles could never recover. Hope was led by a balanced scoring attack as five players reached double digits for the Flying Dutch. Adelynn Vilmann had 15 points, Linda Ebels had 14, Bria Ebels scored 13, Ellen Wood scored 12 and Kelly Taylor tallied 11 points for Hope. Linda Ebels was 7-of-9 from the floor and added nine rebounds for Hope.Saint Mary's has now dropped two games in a row in disappointing fashion after ending their seven-game losing streak against MIAA opponents in their Feb. 2 win over Olivet. Saint Mary's fought back in the second half, only being outscored 45-43. But the first-half margin was too large for any serious attempt to knock off Hope (20-2). Offensively, the Belles played better than they have for much of the season. Their 72 points were far better than their average of 58.6 points per game. Against the tough Hope team, who gives up a mere 57.7 points per game, this statistic is even more impressive.The Belles were lead by Bridget Boyce, who had 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting with six rebounds. Emily Creachbaum added 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting.Despite their offensive output, the Belles defense gave up more points than they have all season as Hope shot 62 percent from the field. The Belles did force 16 turnovers, but this was not enough to slow down the lights-out shooting by Hope. The Saturday loss dropped the Belles to 6-15 and 1-9 in the MIAA. They still have four more games on the season, including a Wednesday night game against Adrian, a team which has been struggling all season as well. In the first meeting between the two teams, Adrian escaped with a 62-56 victory at Saint Mary's in a game that was tied at half.