Two game-winning shots in final 10 seconds don’t drop as postseason hopes evaporate for C-SC women

LAMONI, Iowa — The Culver-Stockton College women’s basketball team suffered a fatal blow to its postseason chances with a 66-65 loss to Graceland University Wednesday night at the Morden Center.

The loss, coupled with Peru State’s victory at Baker University, all but ended the Wildcats’ hope for a berth in the Heart of America Athletic Conference postseason tournament. 

The Wildcats trailed 66-65 after C-SC’s Nevaiah Bell-Tenner split a pair of free throws with 36 seconds remaining in regulation.

With a six-second difference between the shot clock and the game clock, C-SC chose to play defense. The strategy worked as the Wildcats’ Delaney Straus stole the ball with nine seconds left. The Wildcats called timeout to advance the ball to the front court to set up a potential game-winning shot.

C-SC got the ball to Aaliyah Ortiz, who drove the lane. Her first shot rolled off the rim, but Ortiz came out of the scrum with the rebound. She took a second shot with two seconds left, but it didn’t go in, and the ball went out of bounds off a Wildcats player with three-tenths of a second remaining, essentially ending the game.

The Wildcats trailed 20-10 after the first quarter but blistered the nets at a 69 percent (9-13) clip in the second quarter to take a 34-32 lead to halftime. C-SC still led 51-50 after three quarters and scored 10 of the first 14 points of the fourth quarter to take a 61-54 lead with seven minutes left in the game.

The Wildcats then went nearly five minutes without scoring as the Yellowjackets netted 12 straight points to go up 66-61 with 2:26 to play. 

Katie Webb broke the string with 2:21 left, and the Wildcats held Graceland scoreless for the remainder of the game. However, C-SC could only manage a free throw by Ortiz with 1:42 remaining and Bell-Tenner’s foul shot with 36 seconds left in the same timespan.

The Wildcats outscored the Yellowjackets 20-5 from the free throw line, but Graceland made up for that deficit by outscoring the Wildcats 21-3 from the 3-point arc. 

Ortiz led the Wildcats with 20 points and four assists. Bell-Tenner and Avery Oetting chipped in with 11 markers each. Webb and Oetting led the Wildcats with seven rebounds.

C-SC, 10-17 overall and 9-14 in the Heart, will play its season finale this Saturday, Feb. 24, at Park University in Parkville, Mo. Game time is set for 3 p.m.