The Lady Tigers showed no ill effects from Tuesday’s tough loss as they raced out to a 33-11 first half lead over Calvary Bible College and never looked back.  The Tigers displayed balanced scoring and solid defense as they got their fourth win of the season by the final score of 61-40.

Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) paced the balanced attack with 12 points, Amy Leszinske (Ravenna) had nine, Anna Iwaniw (Kent City), Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City), and Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) each had eight, Brittany Summerfield (Forest Hills Northern) and Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) had six, and Sarah Steenwyk (Zion Christian) chipped in with four. 

Kerie Rudd led the rebounders with 10, with Anna Iwaniw and Marissa Pelletier each grabbing eight boards.  The Tigers displayed tremendous unselfish play as they racked up 21 assists on their 28 made baskets.  Amy Leszinske and Kerie Rudd each had six to lead the team. 

“We got off to a great start and we really needed that after the tough loss the other night,” Coach Renzema said after the game.  “We played solid defense and really limited them offensively.  I am proud of the effort the girls gave, especially since some of them are not feeling well.”

The Lady Tigers will conclude their Iowa trip as they take on the Lady Bears of Barclay College from Kansas at 11 AM EST on Saturday. 

The Lady Tigers came off the Christmas break on the road in Chicago looking to win a re-match with Moody.  The Archers, currently ranked #4 in the CCSN power rankings, are a skilled team with good size in the post and several excellent outside shooters, so the Tigers knew they would have to be at their best to defeat the host team. 

The Tiger offense was as good as it has been all season as they opened up a double digit lead in the second half, but Moody’s long range shooting came to life late, including a game-winning shot with 11 seconds remaining to clinch the victory. 

“It was a really good ballgame, but Moody just made one more play than we did,” Coach Renzema commented about the game.  “I thought we played well, especially coming off the long break.  We have to learn how to finish close games, which comes with the territory because we are such a young team.”

Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) led the Tiger attack with 19 points.  Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) and Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) each scored 11, and Amy Leszinske (Ravenna) and Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) each chipped in with nine points.  The Tigers shot their highest field goal percentage of the season at 52% and had their lowest turnover total (14) of the season. 

The Lady Tigers travel to Dubuque, Iowa for two games this weekend before coming home for six consecutive games starting January 15.

On a recent road trip, the Lady Tiger basketball team took time out to learn a little history about the game they play as they were able to experience the National Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.  Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, the Hall of Fame has a lot of educational and historical pictures and artifacts as well as information that documents the

Coach Renzema and the team in front of the Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee

history of the women’s game.  The motto of the Hall of Fame is “honor the past, celebrate the present, promote the future”. 

The time spent at the Hall of Fame gave the girls on the team a good perspective on the development of the game and showed them the obstacles that were overcome in the past to make it possible for them to play the game today. 

The Grace Bible College Lady Tigers have been playing solid defense all season, but the offense had not been performing to the same level.  The Tigers shooters started to find the range this weekend as they captured their own Christmas Tournament crown with a convincing 70-45 win over Kuyper College.

Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) was on fire in the championship game, leading the Lady Tigers with a career high 28 points, including a sizzling 8 for 13 from beyond the 3-point arc.  Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) and Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City) provided inside scoring with 13 and 10 points respectively.    Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) led in rebounds with 11 and assists with 7.

Coach Renzema was feeling upbeat about the state of the team after the game saying, “I like the direction we are heading as a team.  Our shots are starting to fall and we have to be able to score no matter how well we play defense.  Winning a few games has improved our confidence and it is nice going into the break on a winning streak.  We still have a lot of improvement to make, but we are doing a lot of things well.”

In the opening round of the tournament, the Lady Tigers defeated Appalachian Bible College by a 69-33 score.  Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City) had a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds to lead the way.  Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) also had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.  Amy Leszinske (Ravenna) and Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) each added nine points.  Every Grace player scored at least five points.

The depth of the Lady Tiger squad showed over the two games as their non -starters  out-scored their two opponents by a 37-0 margin.

“We have confidence in all of our players to be able to make plays”, Coach Renzema said about his team.  “All of the girls on our roster have the ability to score and play defense and it is a nice luxury to have.  Every player played at least 16 minutes in both games and everyone scored on both games.  Not a lot of NCCAA teams can do that.”

The Lady Tigers are now off until January 8 when they will travel to Chicago to take on Moody.

Syndney Wildeboer had 14 points and 14 rebounds in Friday nights game.

Abby Schultz led the Lady Tigers with 28 points in the Championship Game.

Story coming soon.

Marissa Pelletier had an outstanding game that included 16 points.

The Lady Tigers have been knocking on the door recently, looking for their first victory of the season.  On Saturday, they kicked the door in and got their first victory of the season with a convincing 64-30 victory at Welch College in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Tigers continued their solid defensive play, but finally made some shots when it counted.  Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) had her breakout performance of the season and led the Tiger scoring attack with 16 points.  Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) scored 11, Sarah Steenwyk (Zion Christian) provided some offensive spark off the bench and added nine points to pace the balanced attack.  Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) had eight, Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) and Amy Leszinske (Ravenna) had seven, and Christine Michael had six with two three pointers.  Kerie Rudd also stuffed her stat line and led the team with 10 rebounds and 7 assists for a terrific all-around game.

The Tigers played the game without two players and got very limited action from a third due to injury, so it was critical that all eight available players contributed.

“I feel great for the girls that they finally got a victory,” Coach Renzema said about his team’s effort.  “They had to play through a lot of adversity being short handed today and having to come right back from last night’s tough game.   They showed me a lot today.  I hope we can used this as a springboard for the rest of the season.”

After the game the team visited Downtown Nashville.

The Lady Tigers will be in action next on December 14 and 15 as they are hosting their annual Christmas Tournament.

Sarah Steenwyk had 9 points off the bench.

Kerie Rudd with another solid game including 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Abby Schultz led the Tigers with 18 points.

The GBC Lady Tigers, looking for their first victory of the season, traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee to play Johnson University.  Johnson came into the game averaging over 70 points per game and early on, they showed their shooting prowess, jumping out to a commanding 21-12 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the half.  The Lady Tigers re-grouped, however, and only gave up a single point to the host team for the remainder of the first half.    The Tiger offense was not able to take advantage, and went into the half with a 22-21 defecit.

The Lady Tigers continued the solid defense in the second half and started to make a few shots and got out to a five point lead on a few different occasions, but were never able to extend the lead.  With the score tied at 55, the Tigers took possession of the ball with 20 seconds left in the game looking to take the last shot.  They got two quality looks, but they would not drop and the game headed to overtime.

The neither team took charge in the extra time until the host team executed a perfect high-low play to take a 61-59 lead with 27 seconds left in the game.  The Tigers got another good look at a shot to tie the game, but it would not drop and the game ended with a 61-59 count.

The Tigers were hampered by significant foul trouble for all of their post players throughout the game.  Also adding to the pain was a significant leg injury to leading scorer Kim Kamp in the first half.

“We played really hard, but give Johnson credit for making one more play than we did,” Coach Renzema commented about the loss.  “It is becoming a broken record where we play so hard and do some good things, but this young group needs to learn how to win and that can be hard to do sometimes.  The good news is that we get to go out and try again tomorrow.”

Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) led the Lady Tiger scorers with 18, Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) added 11, Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) had eight, and Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City) chipped in with seven.  Kerie Rudd and Anna Iwaniw were both in double digits in rebounds with 11 and 10 respectively.  Amy Leszinske (Ravenna) chipped in with five points and led the team with five assists.

The Tigers will travel to Nashville on Saturday to take on Welch College.

Lady Tigers listen to Coach Renzema as they prepare for overtime.

In Knoxville the Lady Tigers visited
The National Womens Basketball Hall of Fame.

Kim Kamp led the Tigers with 17 points.

The Lady Tigers hosted the re-match with the Cardinals of Andrews University on Tuesday and were hopeful of a better result this time around.  The Cardinals, with their stingy defense and fine back-court play, had other ideas and ended up with a convincing 60-44 victory.

The Tigers started out with great defensive energy, as they didn’t allow a point to Andrews in the first five minutes of the game.  The Tigers were not able to capitalize as they struggled to find the bottom of the net themselves and were only up 4-0.  Andrews adjusted to the Tiger pressure defense and pulled out to a 28-20 lead at the half.

The Lady Tigeres started the second half with re-newed energy and focus and closed the lead on several occasions, closing the game to a 45-41 count.  Unfortunately, a long scoring drought sealed the fate for the home team as Andrews closed out the victory.

Kim Kamp (Tri-Unity Christian) led the Tigers with 17 points and seven rebounds.  Kerie Rudd (Battle Creek Pennfield) added seven points, six rebounds and six assists.  Marissa Pelletier (Calvin Christian) and Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City) each added six points.

“We continue to so some good things in stretches,” coach Renzema said about the game.  “We just have not been able to put together a complete game.  We continue to show signs that we can be a good team, but I suppose we should expect some of that inconsistency with being such a young team.”

The team is on the road to Tennessee this weekend for two games.  Their next home action will be on December 14-15 as they host their annual Christmas Tournament.

Anna Iwaniw looks to rebound.

Abby Schultz gets 2.

The Lady Tigers had to follow up their hard fought loss to Moody with a matchup against the NCCAA #1 ranked Maranatha.  The Tigers were a little sluggish early and spotted the Crusaders a 9-3 lead in the early going.  The Tigers continuted their solid defensive play to stay in the game and ended the half down 31-23.

Maranatha’s All-American forward, Torey DeLozier, showed off her ability and controlled the game in the second half.  The Crusaders got a lot of easy shots and rebound baskets in the second half to win the game by a 62-49 score.  DeLozier finished with a game-high 24 points and was relentless on the boards.

The Tigers were led in scoring by Kim Kamp (Tri-Unity Christian) with 11 points, Anna Iwaniw (Kent City) came off the bench to score 10 points on 5 of 5 shooting.  Abby Schultz (Calvary Schools of Holland) added six, Sydney Wildeboer (Kent City) and Sarah Steenwyk (Zion Christian) had five apiece.  Anna Iwaniw led the rebounders with six.

“Their experience with all of their starters back really showed up against our young team,” Coach Renzema commented after the game.  “They don’t make a lot of mistakes that young teams tend to do and DeLozier had a really good game against us.  They will be a tough team to beat in the NCCAA this year.”

The Lady Tigers will next be in action on Tuesday, December 4 as they host Andrews University at 5 PM.

Christine Michael looks for an opening.

Marissa [who always has her head in the game] is fouled on her way to the basket.