Eagles’ Season Comes to an End in Montana

David Finney

Billings, MT - After a couple of weeks of soaking in the championship win in the AAC Tournament, the Eagles were back on the court for the Opening Round of the NAIA Women's Basketball National Tournament. They found out who and where they would be playing just one week ago and preparations started right away.

The team packed up on Wednesday morning to make the long journey to Montana where they would take on the nationally-ranked Battlin' Bears of Rocky Mountain College. The Bears had an impressive regular season with a record of 26-4 and they would be the top team in the regional - which they would get to host. All games would be played on their home court before moving on to the next rounds of the tournament. 

The Eagles brought in an impressive resume' to the tournament as well with their championship win at the AAC Tournament and a nine-game winning streak that ended their regular season and tournament run. Abi Haynes was on fire in the last few games of the season putting up 40 points in one of the final regular-season games versus Brenau. She kept her run going through the tournament averaging 31 points per game. Even though the Eagles would be going across the country in the underdog role, they were bringing some firepower with them including Haynes, Ashley Woodroffe, and Catherine Shope. All have been putting up great numbers all season and it was time to put it all on the line in Montana.

The game would start with the Bears getting out fast to an early 8-0 run. The Eagles were able to get back into the game with a 5-0 run themselves getting the score to 8-5, however, Rocky Mountain's offense was too much and they extended their lead to 24-9 by the end of the first quarter. The shots were just not falling for the Eagles and they had a hole to dig out of the rest of the game.

The second quarter would see the offense get going a little on free throws by Shope and Haynes and later a layup by Woodroffe to get the score back to within eleven. Rocky Mountain's offense slowed some as well as they would just score seven points in the quarter.  This allowed the Eagles to get back in the game going into halftime with a score of 31-19. The Eagles would outscore the Bears in the second quarter, 10-7.

The Eagles would get their offense playing more like normal in the third quarter as they would put up 16 points total in the quarter. Catherine Shope and Brooke Grinstead would both have 6 points each in the third quarter to lead the Eagles. The third quarter scoring would just not be enough because Rocky Mountain was able to keep their double-digit lead throughout the quarter. It seemed like everything the Eagles tried - the Bears would come back with a big play of their own to keep the lead. The third quarter would end with a 44-35 Rocky Mountain lead.

The fourth quarter was promising for the Eagles because this was a lead that the Eagles could make a run on. They have easily made runs on teams during the season where they had to come back from a deficit like this and go on to win the game. Unfortunately, this was not going to be the Eagles' day. Several missed opportunities, costly turnovers, and some big shots by Rocky Mountain made the comeback too much for the Eagles. The lead would stay around eleven most of the fourth quarter, but in the final minutes, the advantage for the Bears would extend to fifteen points. The outcome of the game became obvious and the Eagles did not have another run in them as their season would come to an end in Montana. The final score was Rocky Mountain, 63-44.

Although the ending did not play out the way Coach Wagoner and the Eagles wanted it to, they did have a great season. The run that this team had in their final ten to twelve games was amazing. They had some rough stretches in the middle where their schedule was interrupted, but the team held strong and got things lined up to finish out strong. The ladies can always take with them that they had the amazing win streak to end the season and finished as Champions of the Appalachian Athletic Conference.

The team finished with a 20-14 overall record and 15-9 in the AAC. It is now time to start looking forward to next October/November when the Eagles will get things started again. As every off-season goes, Coach Wagoner and his staff will be looking for new talent to come in to replace some very talented and skilled players graduating out of the program. It is a sad time to see players leave, but also a time to look forward to what the program can be from the foundation built by this senior class. Great season and Go Eagles!