Lady Samsons win 7th straight

IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Community College Lady Samsons survived dead legs and 33 turnovers to down the University of Wisconsin-Superior JV team 73-67 Thursday night.

GCC picked up a win the night before against Itasca in Grand Rapids, Minn., and got home in the wee hours Thursday morning.

"Give Superior credit. They really pressured well, they moved well. They played the passing lanes well. They played good defense," Gogebic coach Mark Movrich said. "Another part of the problem, getting back as late as we did last night, we had dead legs. Some of the girls complained they were tired immediately. It was good to hang on for the win."

Only three players played more than 30 minutes in a game GCC never trailed.

"I tried to keep everybody as fresh as possible and rotate people," Movrich said. "Sometimes, I let people in a little too long. You could see some of the mistakes were coming as a result of being tired and not having the strength to make a play. They did fight through it and that is a credit to them."

It didn't seem to faze Brittni Kisul and Sam Ofstad too much. They both played more than 30 minutes. Kisul finished with 26 points and Ofstad with 25.

"Brittni was just far and away the hardest working player on the floor," Movrich said. "She scored 16 of her 26 in the second half, but a lot of that came from working hard on defense, creating turnovers and then getting layups on runouts."

While Superior never led, it never let Gogebic truly pull away.

Ale Kohegyi hit a triple to put Gogebic up 66-51, but UWS went on a 13-2 run to pull within 68-64. Darian Vinkemeier hit a long 2 to put the Lady Samsons up 70-64 and take a lot of the pressure off with over a minute left.

"It was very important in stopping their run, we kind of got some momentum back," Movrich said.

Ofstad later made a pair of free throws a little bit later. Gogebic led 73-65 and Superior was out of time to come back.

"Sam was really steady from the line in the second half, especially when they were in a situation where they had to foul," Movrich said. "It basically kept them at arm's length. It was always pretty much in a three-possession game until the end when it got a little hairy, but we made free throws then, too."

Gogebic handled the late-game situations.

"I thought just understanding the time, understanding the score, understanding the situation, knowing we were in the double bonus and that we were going to get fouled and getting the ball in the right people's hands," Movrich said. "All too often, you see the ball end up in the person's hands you don't want to shooting the free throws. It ended up in Sam's hands and she's been to the line a lot in clutch situations throughout her career and she came through again tonight."

Tierra Sanders led GCC with 10 rebounds.

GCC (9-3) hosts Mesabi Range Wednesday at 5 p.m. The Lady Samsons' game against UW-Marathon County scheduled for Saturday was cancelled because UW-Marathon County didn't have enough players.

"That's disappointing," Movrich said.

He said the Lady Samsons are playing well enough to win, but that they haven't hit their peak yet and the best way to clean up some things is to keep playing.

"The other frustrating part is we had a chance to play Illinois Central the same weekend and they're ranked in the top 10 nationally, which I think would be good to see where are we and we had to decline that game because of this game and this team turns and cancels on us," Movrich said.

UWS - Amelia Leger 10, Amber Zimpel 5, Katie Boone 9, Katie White 14, Abby Clemons 3, Jade Tucker 7, Desirae Sarver 4, Molly Atherton 15. FTs: 9-13. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Leger. 3-pointers: White 2, Zimpel 1, Boone 1.

GCC - Darian Vinkemeier 6, Ale Kohegyi 6, Sam Ofstad 25, Sarah Trudgeon 4, Brittni Kisul 26, Tierra Sanders 6. FTs: 12-18. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Kohegyi 2, Trudgeon 1.

Half: GCC 32-24.