CRUSADERS TOURNEY RUN ENDS IN TITLE GAME

3/4/2008 3:54:00 PM

By: Patrick Moore
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - - A furious comeback was not enough as the Madonna women's basketball team saw its dream of a trip to the National Tournament come up short, 84-79 in the WHAC Tournament finals to Aquinas. The loss ends MU's season at 14-17.

The game opened as a back and forth battle with three ties in the first four minutes. Madonna then went on a 5-0 run sparked by a Tabatha Wydryck (Riverview, Mich.) score as well as a Wydryck block to go along with a lay up from Christie Carrico (Waterford, Mich.) Carrico would then be forced to leave the game after taking an elbow to the face and having to have two stitches put into her upper lip to stop the bleeding.

MU pushed the lead up to seven on a Caryn Inman (Oxford, Mich.) triple from the top of the key to make it 18-11 with 13:23 to go in the opening half. AQ then went on a 9-2 run to take the lead back briefly at 33-31. The Crusaders tied the score again and took another lead on a pair of Carrico free throws. AQ tied the game (the fifth of the contest) on a Carrie Abdo runner in the lane to make it 38-38.

After a Cali Crawford (Rochester, Mich.) triple put MU up two at 41-39, Whitney Marsh answered back for AQ with a three ball of her own to give the Saints a 42-41 lead heading into halftime.

Coming out of the break, the Saints built their lead out to 10 on three separate occasions, the second coming on a Joslyn Narber layup with 7:22 left to make it 68-58. Madonna then went on a 12-2 run over the next three plus minutes to forge the game's sixth tie at 70-70 on a Carrico triple from the left corner with 3:51 showing on the game clock.

AQ regained the lead for good on a pair of Clare Hogan charity tosses with 3:41 left, pushing the lead back out to eight with 20 seconds left and Narber at the free throw line. Inman and Alyssa Guerin (Plymouth, Mich.) hit threes with less than 10 seconds left, but the Crusaders could not get any closer and AQ advanced to the NAIA National Championship with the 84-79 win.

Carrico, who missed over 10 minutes of game action in the first half led MU with 22 points, 12 of those coming in the second half. Wydryck added 17 points and six rebounds of her own to go along with 13 from Inman in her final game as a Crusader. Crawford chipped in with 10 points while Becca Rufli (Linden, Mich.) added six for the Crusaders in the loss.

MU ends the season at 14-17 over all and 7-7 in WHAC action. The Crusaders appeared in the WHAC finals for the second straight season under head coach Carl Graves. MU bids goodbye to its senior class of Crawford, Stephanie Day (Livonia, Mich.), Inman, Rufli and Lauhnna Waybrant (Ortonville, Mich.).

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