Women’s basketball keeps win streak

Last Wednesday, the women’s basketball team hosted the MIAA opener at DeVos Fieldhouse, playing Adrian College. They came into the game with a 3-0 season record and took a strong victory at 88- 50. The Flying Dutch started the game with confidence after moving up to No. 2 in the NCAA Division III polls. The team held the lead from nearly the beginning of the game, cementing it within the first ten minutes with a 27-15 point first quarter score. “We have a number of players who could handle the ball right now,” head coach Brian Morehouse commented. “Our players are running harder. We have really emphasized in practice this year to do a better job of running harder.

I think we are getting what we are emphasizing.” The game featured several leaders from the team, with sophomore Lauren Newman scoring the team high of 12 points, followed closely by sophomore Olivia Voskuil, who scored 11 points and senior Francesca Buchanan at 9 points. Of the 17 players on the team, 16 scored during the game. The team had a total of 24 steals and 35 turnovers from Adrian. The Flying Dutch followed their Wednesday win with another against Olivet College in their first game on the road on Saturday, moving their MIAA season record to 2-0 and overall record to 5-0.

Morehouse attributes the team’s depth to their success. “We’re confident in every player, number one through 17. It comes with experience-not just in games but in practice. Mentorship is huge for our younger players.” The team has one senior, Buchanan, and two juniors, Kayla Russel and Arika Tolbert, to guide underclassmen. The game again saw several of the team’s players contributing to the win, some different ones from the previous game. Buchanan scored a total of 19 points over the game, making it a double-double with 19 rebounds within 26 minutes of play, matching her career-high record from last year’s game against Olivet.

Newman also played hard, scoring 14 points, followed by sophomore guard Kenedy Schoonveld at 12 points and freshman guard Kasey DeSmit with a career high nine points in eight minutes of play. The team plays this Saturday at home against Albion College at 3 p.m. Come out and support!