Duhawks among National leaders…

From a college perspective, your Duhawks are 18th (out of 429) in NCAA Division 3 in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup race. The Directors’ Cup is a program that honors institutions maintaining a broad-based athletics program that achieves success in many sports.

On a basketball front, here are some of the team stat lines of note:
3rd in the nation in free throw percentage (80.1%)
25th in the nation in FG% (44.6%)
40th in the nation in 3 FG% (36.5%)
50th in the nation in 3’s made per game (6.3)
57th in the nation in scoring offense (73.1 PPG)

On an individual front:
Freshman Alex Hudson leads the nation in 3 point % (64%)
Junior Lindsay Bava ranks 27th in the nation in PPG (19.4)
Junior Lisa Morrissey ranks 19th in the nation in assists per game (5.8)

Chicago Recap/2008 Finale

27 turnovers and a dry spell to start the second half spoiled a Duhawk upset attempt at #22 University of Chicago on Thursday night as the Maroons prevailed 76-60. After a first half that saw a lot of physical play, a late Chicago run put the hosts up 7 going into halftime. A Chicago 14-2 run that saw Loras attempt only 5 shots in the first 7 minutes of the 2nd half found the Duhawks down 51-30 with 13 minutes remaining. Loras would counter with a 10-0 run of their own to chip the lead to 11 with 6 minutes remaining but that is as close as the Duhawks would get the rest of the way.

Much credit to our lowest offensive efficiency rating of the year (.667) goes to the Chicago defense, ranked 7th in the nation in FG% defense. With that said though, I was happy with a majority of the looks we had but failed to convert. We succeeded in transition when we did push the ball up the floor, which needs to continue to be a point of emphasis for our scheme. Defensively, after breaking down film a bit, it is apparent we have to get better at our position defense. We held them to under 40% shooting but gave them a lot of free baskets because of poor rotations and inability to contain their penetration. I was happy with our game plan execution in terms that we forced them to shoot a lot from outside (26% on 27 attempts from 3) but needed to come down with more rebounds on the defensive end to compete.

Sophomore SG Sarah Pillon led the way for Loras with 17 points, Lisa Morrissey added 13 points and 5 assists, and Lindsay Bava capped out those in double figures with 14 points and 6 assists.

The Duhawks travel to Milwaukee to battle Wisconsin Lutheran College (my alma mater) on Monday for their last game until after the new year. The Warriors, their conference’s tournament champion a year ago, will provide a good test for our defense and play a similar style to ours. They are led by two very strong shooters at the guard position and start three other true forwards, the first time we will see a front like that since the Augustana game. Links to the audio feed and live stats are posted as usual.

GO Duhawks!!!
-Coach J

Duhawks knock off NCAA Division 2 Upper Iowa

Loras 83

Upper Iowa 66

Boxscore

A hot-shooting Loras College women’s basketball team completely neutralized any scholarship advantage NCAA Division II Upper Iowa may have had Monday night.

The visiting Duhawks wasted no time in establishing an early 12-2 lead over the first three minutes. A fifth Duhawks three-pointer of the half saw the lead blossom to 27-9 and Loras continued to hit shots at a high rate to take a 46-29 halftime lead. The Duhawks shot a blistering 55% from the field in the first half including 7 of 13 shooting from behind the arc while limiting Upper Iowa to a meager 30% from the field.

Upper Iowa opened the second half with a small run, 6-2, to cut the deficit to thirteen points, but Loras crept back out to a 58-39 lead with 12:42 to play. UIU pulled to within eleven points, 61-50, only to see Loras answer once again to extend their lead to 19 points, 73-54. Upper Iowa would only get as close as thirteen points over the final minutes.

Junior guard Lindsay Bava led the Duhawks with 30 points. Bava made 8-of-17 field goals and 11-of-12 free throws to earn Loras’ best offensive output of the season. Three of her field goals were made from behind the three point arc. She added a Duhawks season high 13 rebounds to complete the double-double. Bava wasn’t alone in the Loras double-double category. Junior point guard Lisa Morrissey added 15 points and 10 assists. She took six shots in total, five of them from long distance, and made four of those. Morrissey turned the ball over just once in her 37 minutes of action. Sophomore Sarah Pillon also made four three-point shots on the night to tally her 12 points while Junior Mindy Meyer anchored the paint to add 12 of her own.

We made 48% of their shots on the night (27-56) and made 55% of our three point field goals (11-20) in a “response game” after a disappointing performance two days earlier. I am extremely pleased with how they came out and competed the entire game. We have been putting a lot of emphasis on not getting comfortable despite the score and remaining time and I thought we did that well on Monday.

#22 University of Chicago lies in wait as the Duhawks will hit the road again on Thursday. Broadcasts as always on the upper right hand side of the blog!

GO DUHAWKS!

-Coach J

Men’s Soccer/Luther Recap

For starters today…recognition moves away from the basketball court and onto the soccer field as the Loras men’s team recently finished another very impressive year capped by a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Final Four. Coach Dan Rothert (dan.rothert@loras.edu) continues to take his already rock solid programs to new heights and consistently adds class and professionalism to the Loras community. Congratulations Duhawks and Coach Rothert!!!

To our game….Traditionally one of the strongest defensive teams in the conference and a sweet sixteen player a couple years ago, Saturday’s matchup vs. preseason #3 pick Luther College marked one of rivaling styles. In the first frame, the Duhawks put together a 20-7 run in the final eight minutes en route to a 41-30 halftime lead. The second half saw a Loras 21 point lead (61-40) trimmed to just 4 with 6 minutes to play. However, Loras used a 17-6 counter run to close out the game on top 80-65. Boxscore

From a numbers front, I was happy with our offensive efficiency rating that spanned 80 points on 83 possessions. Of our 23 field goals made, 17 of them came on assists from teammates. Also interesting to note, the last time a team scored 80 on the Norse was 11-25-2006. Individually, Lindsay Bava kept up her stellar play with a 21 point effort while limiting the Norse’s leading scorer to 11 points without a trip to the line. Lisa Morrissey contributed yet another great all around effort (14 points, 9 assists), Alex Hudson added another double double (15 points, 10 rebounds), and Sarah Pillon rounded out those in double figures with 10. We also got some much needed production from our post players as we continue to emphasize points in the paint to take some pressure off our guards. On the defensive side of the ball,

A number of team goals we set at the beginning of the season came into play on Saturday. The Duhawks held Luther to 38% shooting on the game, below their average on the season. We finished the game 24-26 from the free throw line (92%) which put us right at our 80% goal for the year. We won the battle on the glass (39-33) and have now done so successfully in 5 of our 7 games this year.

Finals week this week brings a break from basketball…although not one from the books. We will resume a practice routine on Thursday and travel to North Central in Naperville, IL for a non-conference showdown on Saturday. Stay tuned for the latest!

GO DUHAWKS!!!!
-Coach J

Coe Recap: Loras Gets Defensive

In recent talks about the Loras women, much of the publicity for our early success has gone to our offense …and reasonably so. We entered Wednesday’s game shooting 46% from the field and frankly, our offensive execution really kept us close against Whitewater and Winona State and probably won us a few other games as well. But yesterday’s bout against conference contender Coe was a story of a much different tune. On a night where our offense seemed to stall at times, the Duhawk defense held the Kohawks to their lowest point total in 35 games en route to a 60-49 conference road victory. Coe finished the game shooting just 32% from the floor. The score favored Loras for all 17 seconds of the game and saw a 9 point halftime lead blossom to double digits the entire second half.

Familiar names led the way individually for Loras as Lindsay Bava (17 points) and Sarah Pillon (11 points) topped the scoring charts. Alex Hudson added her second double-double of the year (10 points, 10 rebounds) and Lisa Morrissey had a great all around effort (7 points, 7 steals, 6 assists). It was great to see our defense play the way it did against a Coe team that can really take you out of rhythm. Our offense did sputter a bit for spurts and there were times I thought we were stuck on a few numbers. I told the girls at the half that by minimizing a few of the turnovers we strung together, we will take some pressure off our defense and have a great chance to run away with it. Boxscore

Another huge conference game against Luther tomorrow! Tipoff at home set for 2PM. Luther was picked third in the IIAC this year and traditionally boasts the best defense we will see in conference. I anticipate a closely contested, physical game..it should be a great one!!! As usual, links for the game can be found on the top right…SEE YOU SATURDAY!
GO DUHAWKS!
-Coach J