MILWAUKEE – Mount Mary University basketball team did something Thursday night it has been unable to do in two years—finish a season. Welcoming Maranatha Baptist University at the Bloechl Center Thursday, Mount Mary starred in its first season finale since February 2012.
Despite a lopsided 77-45 defeat, first year head coach Marc Heidorf had no qualms commending his squad.
"I saw no heads hanging in that locker room," Heidorf said. "What I saw was the look of a team ready to do more and excited about what the future holds. There is success in that—these kids deserve credit for that, and I respect the heck out of them for that."
Sophomore forward Donielle Yendriga (Conneaut, Ohio) paced the Angels with 16 points and seven rebounds, while freshman Taylor Baumgart (Burlington, Wis.) added 16 points of her own to carry much of the scoring load against MBU.
Freshman Phoenix Hulsey (Wauwatosa, Wis.), who played in her final game of eligibility Thursday, grabbed seven rebounds, two assists and a game-high four steals in her basketball swan song.
The Blue Angels kept things close in the opening minutes, as Maranatha appeared a bit flat on the offensive end of the floor. A Hulsey jumper just inside the 18-minute mark pushed Mount Mary to its biggest lead of the game at 6-3.
The teams played back and forth through the next eight minutes, as both teams used plenty of shot clock to work against the others' defense. A Yendriga layup pulled the Angels to an 11-10 deficit before Maranatha answered with a 12-2 run to extend its lead to 23-12 at the 7:42 mark in the opening half.
A Baumgart baseline triple and layin by junior forward Katie Edwards (Mackinaw, Ill.) pulled Mount Mary to within seven at the five-minute mark but a 10-0 Crusader run to end the half all but put the game away, doubling up the Angels 34-17 at the half.
Maranatha didn't let up in the second stanza, steadily inflating its lead after halftime.
Down 41 points with just five minutes remaining, Heidorf sent a challenge to his players—a challenge that was met.
"We're 1-18, down by a cartoonish margin with just a few minutes to go in the season, and all we were focused on was winning the final stretch," Heidorf said. "The result was a 15-6 run to finish up."
While the Blue Angels finish their season with a record of 1-19, Heidorf is excited about the future.
"The goals are different," Heidorf said. "The chances of you winning 25 games a season, one year removed from not playing at all and with no recruiting class coming in are clearly not high. We tried to focus on what we could control—let's lay the groundwork for a culture of consistency. Let's do things the right way and set the tone of being a program that will battle to the end no matter what."
And right down to the season finale, the Blue Angels did just that.
