OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
-excerpt from Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”
I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to open with my thoughts from Springfield than that. For those who don’t get the connection, read Mark Simon’s article on Hope College on the D3hoops.com main page.
What a wonderful weekend of basketball in Springfield at Blake Arena. The “Birthplace of Basketball” saw Hope defeat Southern Maine 69-56 for their second NCAA Division III women’s basketball championship. The Flying Dutch are based out of Holland, Michigan, but they operated like something out of a factory assembly line in Detroit.
Bria Ebels with her quickness, tenacity and big shot making capability would be the foreperson. Going down the assembly line, there’s someone for each aspect of winning a basketball game. Julie Henderson electrified the Hope contingent with her defense and speed in transition. Linda Ebels, Ellen Wood and Lindsay Lange provided the size and muscle on the block. The three did a magnificent job on First Team All-American Ashley Marble, limiting her to eight points. And each time Hope went down low, one of the three was there to grab an offensive rebound, or put the ball in the basket. The assembly line turned out to be a well-oiled machine that took the title.
You have to feel for the Huskies fans. Southern Maine under Gary Fifield has been so close to winning the national championship. The Huskies have been to the title game three times and the national semifinals five times. Meghan Myles tried to put the team on her back for a second straight day, but on Saturday it wasn’t meant to be. Interesting decision for Ashley Marble as Mark Simon, Gordon Mann and I talked about on the broadcast. Marble academically is a senior, but has one year left of athletic eligibility. Does she come back for one more run at the title? Even though they don’t have a national champion, USM still is one of the most dominant women’s basketball programs in the country. They’ve won 20 or more games a NCAA record 26 times in a row.
Nice to see the University of Scranton finally win the National Third Place Game. Southern Maine won the consolation game last year and road that into this year all the way to the title game. Scranton does graduate two seniors, but brings back Taryn Mellody and Allison Matt. Plus, Tiffany Williams is only going to get better. Under Mike Strong, Scranton’s been a powerhouse in the Middle Atlantic, I think that will continue into next year. The Lady Royals put Friday night’s disappointment behind them, and played very well on Saturday afternoon.
For Hardin-Simmons, a tough weekend on the scoreboard, but just the fact that they made it to Springfield is remarkable. Their starting point guard Sara Hauk went down late in the season and the Cowgirls lost three of their final four with Rachel Cisneros running the point. HSU got the ball in the NCAA tournament and ran with it. Coach Briggs has already gathered 100 victories in four years. The future looks bright for the Cowgirls. Remember, like Hope, they won four games away from their home floor to make it to the National semifinals.
I’ll take a lot of memories away from Springfield. The atmosphere as I wrote about in the game-day blog was through the roof. On Saturday, there was a crowd of over 2,000 people jammed in for the title game. In the eight seasons I’ve been broadcasting women’s basketball, that’s the most electric setting I’ve seen. Kudos to all of the fans that trekked into Western Mass this weekend. Springfield College and AD Cathie Schweitzer did a tremendous job hosting. Gordon Mann will write about that later in the week.
Thank you to everyone this weekend who either listened or watch coverage from Springfield. We hope you’ll join us at the Blake Arena next year.