Jimmies end challenging season looking ahead

Feb. 25—Somewhere near Watertown, South Dakota, University of Jamestown women's basketball coach Thad Sankey spared a few minutes to reflect as the mile markers clicked past the Jimmies' team bus Wednesday night on Interstate 29.

Two possessions had separated Jamestown and the NAIA's seventh-ranked women's basketball team in the fourth quarter just hours earlier, and at that moment the Jimmies had proved to themselves that a chaotic season was a success regardless of what the scoreboard would eventually read.

The Jimmies overcame losing senior forward Mackensi Higlin — a position they really couldn't afford to be thin at — to a season-ending knee injury in game No. 2 back in November. But into the starting lineup stepped true freshman center Audrey Rodakowski, who can arguably be considered the team's MVP having averaged over nine points and five rebounds per night in a much larger role than expected.

Then sophomore standout Hannah DeMars — the NAIA's player of the week in Week 1 — missed four games down the stretch to a broken nose and concussion suffered in a car accident at the end of January, but the Jimmies still finished tied for sixth in the Great Plains Athletic Conference record-wise at 12-10. Tiebreakers sent UJ to Sioux City on Wednesday to play top-seeded Morningside College in the opening round of the GPAC postseason tournament.

There were no breaks for the Jimmies in 2020-21, finishing at 15-11 overall after losing seven games by nine points or less.

"Not to mention playing in a global pandemic," reminded Sankey, whose Jimmies — as well as teams around the country — tackled their fair share of battles with COVID-19 and the constant juggling act the virus presented. "No path to excellence is really an easy one, and this year was hard. So that success and resilience in the middle of adverse situations was kinda what we did this year.

"It was a little of the opportunity that we needed."

An 84-75 loss to the Morningside Mustangs brought Jametsown's season to a close. Morningside remained unbeaten at home this winter (12-0) and will host Briar Cliff in Saturday's semifinals, but the game was an about-face for the Jimmies having just been whipped by the Mustangs inside the Rosen Verdoorn Sports Center by 46 a month ago.

Jamestown put the first eight points on the board and led the Mustangs (21-1 overall) by two before a 9-2 Morningside run to end the opening half flipped the game's momentum. The Jimmies were able to claw back to within five (76-71) with 3:30 to play in the fourth after trailing by as many as 13 in the third, but Morningside's McKenna Sims, Sierra Mitchell and Sophia Peppers combined to convert 6 of 6 at the foul line in the final minute to put the game away.

Mitchell turned in a game-high 27 points, edging UJ sophomore guard Kia Tower in scoring. Tower posted a career-high 25, while sophomore Macy Savela converted 5 of 9 3-pointers and scored 16 and DeMars added another 15.

"Our girls were really focused and we had a choice, not just with where we were at in the tournament being at the No. 1 seed, but also the last time we played there. Just what did we want to make tonight?'" Sankey said. "Did we want to give them a great game or did we just want to quit?"

Jamestown outrebounded Morningside 34-33, led by Rodakowski with nine boards, but the Mustangs' defensive pressure produced 17 steals, which was too much for the Jimmies to overcome.

"Late in the game they beat us in one-on-ones and that was hard," Sankey said. "Sometimes we had the ball in the hands of the player we wanted and it came down to getting stops and we couldn't do it.

"We knew it was going to take an incredible game to win there. We knew a great game would have us in the mix down the stretch and we played that. We played a great game tonight, it just wasn't quite enough."

It was the final game for seniors Emma Stoehr and Correy Hickman, but Jamestown starters Tower, DeMars, Rodakowski and Josephson, along with key reserve Savela, will make up an experienced core returning for the Jimmies next winter. Those five accounted for 61.6 of UJ's 70.5 points scored per game and 26.5 of the team's 37.3 rebounds per game this season.

"For us, we know it's the end of the season and we've got a couple seniors that wrapped up their careers tonight, so there's a part of that that's disappointing and there's also a part of it that's really exciting and encouraging," Sankey said. "To perform the way that we did and be where we are right now with how our team feels and just the pride and the resilience that we have right now, our girls are confident in what's coming."

GPAC Women's Basketball

Postseason Tournament

(Tournament seeds in parentheses)

Feb. 24

(1) Morningside College 84, (8) University of Jamestown 75

UJ 19 13 19 24 — 75

MC 21 16 23 24 — 84

UJ — Kia Tower 25, Macy Savela 16, Hannah DeMars 15, Emma Stoehr 9, Audrey Rodakowski 6, Noelle Josephson 4. Totals: 29-54 FG, 9-22 3-pointers (Savela 5, Tower 3, Stoehr), 8-12 FT, 34 Rebounds (Rodakowski 9, Stoehr 6), 2 Blocks (Rodakowski, Correy Hickman), 3 Steals (Rodakowksi, Josephson, Savela), 15 Assists (Savela 4, Stoehr 4), 18 Fouls, 23 Turnovers.

MC — Sierra Mitchell 27, Chloe Lofstrom 17, McKenna Sims 12, Taylor Rodenburgh 11, Sophia Peppers 11, Sadie Roth 4, Faith Meyer 2. Totals: 26-64 FG, 13-28 3-pointers (Mitchell 7, Lofstrom 2, Sims 2, Peppers, Rodenburgh), 19-22 FT, 33 Rebounds (Lofstrom 6), 0 Blocks, 17 Steals (4 with 3), 18 Assists (Mitchell 3, Rodenburgh 3), 14 Fouls, 10 Turnovers.

Records: Morningside 24-2. Jamestown 15-11.

Feb. 24

(4) Briar Cliff 67, (5) Dordt 54

(3) Northwestern 76, (6) Midland 54

(2) Concordia 70, (7) Dakota Wesleyan 58

Feb. 27

Briar Cliff at Morningside, 3 p.m.

Northwestern at Concordia, 3 p.m.

March 2

Semifinal winners at highest remaining seed, Time TBA