Lady Samsons 1 home win away from national tournament

By PAT KRAUSE

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Ironwood - Last Sunday, the Gogebic Community College Lady Samsons won the NJCAA Women's Region 13 Division II Basketball Championship for the first time since the 2008-09 season with a 87-67 victory over United Tribes Tech.

After the game, there were a lot of happy, emotional people celebrating the championship on the floor of the Lindquist Center and coach Mark Movrich declared "the drought" was over.

"The win meant a lot to the girls," Movrich said. "Usually, they just go out and play, There's no conference title or anything to shoot for besides the Region 13 championship. Winning took the monkey off our backs. There's been some good teams and good players that never won it. Our girls felt they were validated as good players and a good team. You feel empty when you don't win it."

Lori Wardynski was the ultimate stop and watch player on Sunday and played a "sensational" game, according to Movrich. She not only scored 48 points but filled up the rest of the stat sheet, too.

She was 16-27 on her field goal attempts and made 14-18 of her free throws. Wardynski hauled down eight rebounds, had eight steals and dished out five assists while playing 38 out of 40 minutes of the game.

Had Movrich ever seen a better individual performance?

"I almost have to say no," Movrich said. "The impact she had on the game was phenomenal. She's now the No. 1 scorer in the nation in Division II. But we got a lot of contributions and good performances from the other girls, too," Movrich said. "We almost always leave it out there on the court."

In all the excitement after Sunday's big win, Wardynski made the off-hand comment that "this win takes us to a new level," suggesting that the Lady Samsons were moving into unchartered waters in the world of women's basketball.

And Movrich said he may have to slip in the fact that Gogebic is now the reigning Division II Region 13 champion when he's out on the recruiting trail.

"It won't hurt," Movrich said. "To be honest, interest in the basketball program is at an all-time high in and out of our area. We have the leading scorer in the county and Bailey (Froberg) is up high in shooting stats nationwide. Recruits notice that stuff.

"Our team GPA is 3.3, which is with some dual sport athletes. And they like our style of play which is getting out and running. And now we've won the Region 13 championship. To a big extent, kids associate whether you're a good school by your athletic program."

Movrich said he and the Lady Samsons feel that now that they have accomplished one of their big goals, it's time to keep riding the wave and move on to even bigger goals.

The Lady Samsons will host Southeast Community College of Beatrice, Neb., on Saturday at 4 p.m. in an NJCAA Division II District F playoff game. The winner advances to the national tournament held March 20-24 in Harrison, Arkansas. Gogebic is 17-13 and are the champions of Region 13, while Southeast is 12-18 and champions of Region 9.

"I'm not going by their record," Movrich said. "They play a lot of Division I schools, so that doesn't mean they're not good. They won on Monday and I've watched a lot of film on them already. But it can hard to say how good they are by just watching them on film.

"It's going to be two contrasting styles of play. They play a 2-3 zone and have a size advantage on us and they have a deeper bench.We like to get out and run, get stops or create turnovers and get down the floor before the other team gets back. We won't get a lot of close shots because of their size, but we don't want to just rely on the outside shot."

Movrich said team chemistry continues to be the strength of this year's team and only seems to get stronger.

"This team is in the top two of all the teams I've coached as far as team chemistry goes," he said.

Movrich is hoping for an even louder and larger crowd than the big crowd that showed up for the Region 13 championship.

"Our girls feed off the crowd," Movrich said.