MILWAUKEE – The Mount Mary University Blue Angels lost tonight 77-42 against the Archers of Moody Bible Institute. It sends the Blue Angels to a 0-6 start to the 2014-15 season, and evens up MBI at 3-3.
Last year the Blue Angels played the Archers twice, the first was a 13 point loss, and the second was a lopsided affair in which the Blue Angels were littered with injuries up and down the lineup and gave up some big runs to MBI. Tonight MMU kept it tight to begin. The teams went back and forth until the 10 minute mark in the first half. The 12-10 score in favor of MBI started to slide the way of the Archers as they went on a 10-0 run and finished the half 31-18.
The second half saw another even setting, but the shots just would not fall for MMU who outshot the Archers 69-68 in field goals. One reason was the outstanding defensive timing of Jenna Bloodworth (Sr./Oxford, Mich.) who finished with 10 blocks on the night, but more impressively completed her night with a triple-double; 20 points and 14 rebounds.
For the Blue Angels, rookies Chrisandra Freeman (Fr./Cedar Rapids, Iowa) and Becky Onan (Fr./Grafton, Wis.) had some productive offensive nights. Freeman pulled down nine rebounds, two steals, and 14 points on the evening. Doing her best to fill out the stat sheet, Onan had 12 points, six rebs, three assists, three steals and two blocks.
While the Blue Angels started to get their defense going in the first half, the offensive side of things has yet to come together for the whole 40 minutes. The Blue Angels finished with 70 percent from charity stripe, but shot 19 percent from the field as the good looks just did not drop. With only two more games before the holiday break, the Blue Angels are ready to buckle down for tough road stretch to finish the 2014 portion of the season.
After the game Coach Marc Heidorf was still encouraged by his team's performance, "tonight was the first night that concepts from practice came together in some kind of consistent manner in the game. We were getting completely different shots that we did not get in the past. We were taking good looks that would not fall, as opposed to bad shots, and we can build off that."
The Blue Angels are heading to Iowa to play a pair of games in Dubuque for the upcoming weekend. The first of the two road games will be Friday Dec. 5th at 7:00 pm against Clarke University.
