Calvary's Sharpshooting Drowns Eagles' Comeback

By Jon Crossman

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The road has not been kind to the lady Eagles this season, as they have lost all but one of their games away from the comfort of the Nettleton gym. A Friday evening loss to Calvary served as bumpy start to the forecasted weekend of games, and the fifth recorded defeat of the season away from home.

Faith started out the game with the golden standard tipoff play, a quick pass to the corner shooter for an easy bucket, but the initial shot from Makenna Laib didn't fall, and Calvary stormed down center court to get the first bucket of the game. Not to be outdone, Faith's first string answered to get the game to a fairly even 5-7 game halfway into the first quarter. A grab bag of turnovers and painfully close shots off the rim for Faith made for a handful of unanswered Calvary baskets in the latter half of the quarter, and the Eagles found themselves in a tight corner down 13-26 going into the second quarter. Freshman Mary Yarnell came off the bench to start the second, adding 4 points and 3 valuable rebounds in the quarter to the Eagles' retaliation. Faith players put up 18 points before the halftime buzzer sounded, but their 0-7 shooting on threes wasn't enough to keep up with Calvary's four made three-pointers for the quarter. The Eagles headed to the locker room to regroup for the next half, down 31-44.

Both teams heated up after intermission with some immediate corner sinkers. Sarah Iler started the Eagles out with a dime, bagging 11 of her 15 points in the third quarter off 50% shooting. Faith quickly mended their shooting dilemma with an impressive 53.8% FG in the third quarter, a statistic that would prove to yield the highest scoring quarter of the game. Calvary's defense acted quickly to shut down any late game comeback attempt, and the Eagles' playmakers met their Waterloo with the perpetual problem of turnovers returning to torment them. Sixteen of the 26 committed turnovers occurred in the last half, halting any forward progress for Faiths' scoring, and putting the ball back in Calvary's hands with seemingly every play. Calvary kept the heat on with six more 3's, ending the game with one last dagger to make it 86-61.

Game leaders for the Eagles were Makenna Laib with 16 points, followed by Rachel Kleczka (14), Sarah Iler (15) and Mary Yarnell (12). Makenna did an outstanding job of facilitating plays, contributing 6 assists to the offensive measures. Donnecia King pulled down 13 rebounds, and Rachel Kleczka trailed closely with 10 to record another double-double on the season.