Subbert Breaks Record in Finals Loss
Christa Subbert
Davenport–With a tremendous second half, Christa Subbert (Sr., Stanton, Stanton HS) became the all-time leading scorer in Lady Statesmen basketball history, but for anyone who knows her, the senior would have rather raised a Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament trophy Monday night instead.
Unfortunately, she was not able to have both as the third-seeded Penn women fell 79-72 to top seed and #12 St. Ambrose in Monday’s championship game.
The Queen Bees (28-4) claim the conference’s automatic bid to the 20th Annual NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championships March 9-15 at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, while the Lady Statesmen (23-10) begin the waiting game as a bubble team hoping to earn an at-large berth.
Selections and pairings to the 32-team tournament will be announced Wednesday at 6 p.m. online at www.victorysportsnetwork.com
Subbert tallied a game-high 23 points, including 18 in the second half to easily surpass Becky Inman’s previous mark of 2,139 points. The senior, who needed just eight points to surpass the record, set the mark on a free throw at the 14:14 mark of the second stanza. She currently has 2,155 points for her career, which hopefully will include at least one more game.
Penn played a fairly strong game, but just came up short in the end. The visitors held early leads of 2-0 and 4-3, but then never led again as St. Ambrose pulled out to a 30-23 advantage at the break.
The margin remained six points or more for much of the second 20 minutes until the Lady Statesmen finally narrowed the deficit to three late. Subbert of course was the culprit, nailing a three-pointer to make it 63-60 with 3:40 left on the clock. The guard was 8-of-20 from the field (2-of-7 3-PT) and went 5-of-6 at the line.
As they did all night, however, the Queen Bees responded to the 7-0 run with one of their own, extending the advantage back to seven with 2:27 remaining.
Penn battled to within five on three more occasions, but could come no closer in the waning seconds, although St. Ambrose was just 4-of-10 from the stripe in the last 44 seconds of regulation (28-of-39 overall). On the other end, the Lady Statesmen were quite efficient at the line, going 16-of-19.
The visitors actually won the shooting battle, 43.5%-42.6%, but were defeated on the boards, 40-34, good for a 16-11 edge in second-chance points. Eighteen Queen Bee turnovers were converted into 17 Lady Statesmen points (15 TOs for Penn).
Orielle Thomas (Fr., Waynesville, Mo., Waynesville HS) concluded the conference tourney with her third-straight double-double (seventh of the year), posting 18 points and a game-high ten rebounds.
Kim Thompson (So., Park Forest, Ill., Upper Iowa) also got to double digits with 13 points, while Rachel Butler (Sr., Orange County, Calif., Cerritos CC) added eight points off the bench and Sarah Martin (So., Anthem, Ariz., Boulder Creek HS) contributed six.
The sophomore point guard dished out five assists, while Samantha Darley (Sr., Gilbert, Ariz., Mesa CC) matched Butler with three steals.
The loss snaps the program’s four-game winning streak.
“I thought we played pretty good overall tonight, but we needed to get a couple more stops late and just could not get it done,” Lady Statesmen Head Coach Brian Spielbauer said. “We had a great season and our ladies have done a great job of turning this program around in just a few short years.”
“I want to thank everyone for their support tonight and throughout the season and we just hope we can extend it a bit longer with a trip to the national tournament!”
