By Dan Vasta
March 9, 2010
The Elmhurst ‘Jays closed their 2010 season on Feb. 27 with a loss to Illinois Wesleyan University in the CCIW Tournament championship.
Turnovers were a major problem for the ‘Jays. The ‘Jays turned the ball over 22 times.
The ‘Jays finished off their season going 10-4 in conference with an overall record of 18-9.
Advancing to the championship in a must-win game to move on to the NCAA Tournament, the ‘Jays fell to third-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University 82-72.
Although Illinois Wesleyan had home court advantage, the ‘Jays were not fazed as they led by seven points with 10 minutes left in the first half.
The ‘Jays also shot 54 percent from the field and connected on eight of 14 three pointers (57.1 percent).
However, after a 20-5 run at the five-minute mark of the first half, Wesleyan took an eight-point lead.
Wesleyan’s defense continued to wreak havoc on the ‘Jays, forcing a plethora of turnovers to take a 16-point lead going into halftime.
This Elmhurst team, who had to battle through early adversity and late injuries, would not go down without a fight.
Senior Maggie McTeague, who started in eight games for the ‘Jays, was forced to sit out due to a shoulder injury.
However, junior Kelsey Monroe, who started in 15 games this season, averaged over 23 minutes per game, filled in admirably for McTeague.
The bench production from juniors Erika Scwartz, Ceejay Harris and Claire Gentry also helped out the team.
“We have a lot of good players coming off the bench, when we lost one of our players due to injury,” said Monroe. “We just want to show everybody how good we play together as a team by improving.”
Down 16 at half was a tough hole to climb out of, and the 22 turnovers haunted the ‘Jays.
Yet they cut the lead to four points with under 10 minutes to play in the game.
The ‘Jays came out in the second half connecting on 62.1 percent from the field as well as outscoring Wesleyan 43-37.
Wesleyan was led by three All-CCIW performers in senior Christina Solari and juniors Nikki Preston and Hope Schulte. The trio combined for 50 points, shooting 19-39, 48 percent from the field.
The trio’s defensive effort could not slow down senior Lynsdie Long, as she ended her illustrious career with yet another noteworthy performance.
Long shot 11 of 17 from the field, pulling down seven rebounds, hit five three-pointers, and dropping a game-high 32 points.
Head coach Tethnie Werner was proud of the team’s effort and thought Long helped the team mature throughout the season.
“She worked hard every off season to become the player she was this season.
She had the year that she dreamed about,” said Werner. “She could have easily stepped back each summer because she was already one of the better players in the conference, but she didn’t. She wasn’t satisfied with that.”
On Feb. 26, Long was named first team All-Conference as well as being named the CCIW Most Outstanding Player of the Year.
She finished off the season averaging 24.3 PPG while hitting 74 three-pointers as well as making 100 free throws.
Long had 1,866 career points in her four seasons at Elmhurst, while making 283 free throws and 170 three pointers in the process. She played in all 103 games that the ‘Jays have played in the past four seasons, starting in 102 of them. She ended with a career average of 18.11 PPG.
Prior to the championship game, the ‘Jays defeating 10th-ranked Carthage College 68-56 in the 2-3 seed matchup on Feb. 26.
Carthage led the CCIW in field goal percentage this season at 47 percent. Elmhurst was third at 43.5 percent.
Defensively, Carthage led the CCIW in field goal percentage at 38.5 percent while Elmhurst was sixth at 41.4 percent.
Elmhurst played team defense holding Carthage to 34.5 shooting percentage.
Carthage’s defense double- teamed Long most of the game, holding her to just nine points.
“She’s obviously a very skilled player, she’s someone you can’t let get hot right away because then she gets comfortable and can obviously do a lot of damage,” said Carthage guard Heather Gilmore about Long. “She was a huge contribution to Elmhurst as a team.”
But sophomore Megan Merklein’s game-highs 12 rebounds and 17 points, along with sophomore Megan Ney’s 11 points and five rebounds, as well as junior Kelsey Monroe’s 15 points and two blocked shots helped the ‘Jays edge Carthage.
Besides Long, two other ‘Jays were named to the All-Conference teams as well.
Ney was named to second team All-Conference, while Merklein was named to third team All-Conference.
“That shows that we weren’t just a one-person team,” said Werner. “Ney and Merklein have developed into two of the best center/forwards in the conference and the best thing is that they are only sophomores.”
Ney finished the season averaging 11 PPG and 6.3 RPG which were both among the conference leaders.
Merklein had a great sophomore campaign as well, averaging 13.2 PPG and 5.5 RPG. Both players are expected to continue their great play next season.
Despite the tough loss to Illinois-Wesleyan, this season’s 10 victories in the CCIW were the most Elmhurst has had since 1991 and the 18 total wins were the most the team has accomplished since 1986.
Since the CCIW Tournament started back in 2003, Elmhurst has never reached the tournament championship game. That changed this season.
“This has been a great season, but I will miss the seniors because they have meant so much to the program as well as to me personally,” said Monroe. “It is definitely the best group of girls that I have played with.”
Elmhurst’s finish at second in the CCIW Tournament is also the greatest finish in their tournament history.
It was the third time Elmhurst has played in the CCIW Tournament with the other two times losing in the semifinals.
Elmhurst made dramatic improvements from a season ago, a year in which they missed the CCIW Tournament by one game.
Last season the ‘Jays only shot 28.2 percent behind the arc, 40.9 percent from the field, and 68.6 percent from the free throw line.
This season they shot 35.9 percent from the arc, 44.7 percent from the field and 74.6 percent from the charity line, which led the CCIW.
The ‘Jays also gained some fans, leading the CCIW in average home attendance this season.
Out of the 11 home games, there were an average of 438 fans in attendance, which totals to 4,822 fans in the 11 games. They even topped Wesleyan, which averaged 382 per game.
Clearly there were improvements made; now the program just needs to remain consistent together.
The team returns six of their top nine players in minutes, but will lose Long, Rashida Joiner and McTeague.
“I will miss this team the most not because of the wins or success but they are all great people to be around,” Werner said. “I’ve never seen a team laugh, smile and forget things the most in a season.”
Five of the players that played extensive minutes will be upperclassmen, so experience will not be something they lack.
Despite the loss and playing in her last game, Long held nothing back and had no regrets.
“We set the bar high because we knew we had the team that was capable of accomplishing any goal we set for ourselves,” said Long. “Going to the NCAA
Tournament is of course everyone’s ultimate goal, but I think if we were to go out on top that is how we would want it.”
Long finished third in the entire nation at 24.29 PPG and was second in the nation in three point field goals made with 74.
She also had 89.2 free throw percentage this season which ranked sixth in the nation.
She truly enjoyed all 3,101 minutes, over 50 hours, played in her career.
“I just love the game of basketball and wanted to do everything to help my team get into the position we wanted to be in.”
The ‘Jays will have time off before summer workouts begin.