Yesterday afternoon we took on the Scots of Macalester for their Senior Day. They only one senior and honored our seniors as well, which was a really classy move. This was a game that we needed a victory to propel us into the playoffs. We also needed a Bethel or St Johns loss. Bethel played at first place Gustavus while SJU played at home vs Concordia. The schedule looked to be in our favor.
The game started about as bad as it could. We couldn't score and our pressure did nothing for us. We put a lot of our "second unit" in they got us going with, I believe, a 15-0 run. It seemed like we seized control of the game. Things don't always go the way they seem. MAC came back, making a bunch of jumpers and beating us to basically all loose balls, flat out beating us.
Watching that last 10 minutes of the first half was super disappointing. This was our last chance to get even get into the playoffs and we were just letting it get away from us without a fight. It's pretty frustrating at this point. As coaches we try to put our players in the best situation to succeed. We can preach effort but we can't teach it. The bench teaches that but our guys haven't responded to that as well. We were down eight at the half and it didn't look good.
We knew coming in that MAC always plays hard and they will compete until the final whistle. Their record doesn't indicate where they were at. I know it's tough to look at their record and think they bad but they can compete with anyone in the conference. That has been proven throughout the whole year.
We came out okay in the second half but still couldn't get into their lead as much as we would like. They were still getting some easy baskets as a result of our pressure and lack of defensive intensity. We were down by ten with a little more than ten minutes to play. We looked like we were on our last half of the season.
All of a sudden, something clicked. Our guys had an intensity level that I hadn't seen all year. We had a ton of energy and we getting easy baskets at an alarming rate. We finally took the lead but MAC hung right here with us. We started really attacking the offensive boards as getting to the free throw line. That's exactly what we needed to do but we weren't exactly on fire from the line and it kept them in the game. We got some much needed stops in the last couple of minutes and pulled away for the victory. I believe the final score was 65-58.
The last 13 or so minutes of the game was about as intense as we've ever had at Hamline. It was an impressive performance by our guys. We shot 37% from the floor for the game, 25% from treyland, and 67% from the charity stripe and still won on the road. It was a grind it out type game and we pulled away late. Exactly how it's supposed to be.
After the win, we found out that both Bethel and SJU won their respective games and our season was over. What a high to an extreme low. It was really tough to tell the guys that our season was over especially after a win.
To finish the year 13-12 and 11-9 in the conference and not get in the playoffs is heartbreaking. It's really tough but we put ourselves in that situation by not taking of business when we were supposed to. A harsh reality for sure but we can't all of a sudden make the playoffs. We have to move on and get ready to for next season.
I want to thank our seniors Matt Farb, Mike Campbell, Brandon Rieg, and Levi Wenrich for their contributions to our program over the past several years. They have changed the attitude and expectations for the program for many years to come. Brandon and Levi have been here my all four years and I really appreciate what they've done. Their careers didn't end the way we would've liked but we did end with a "W."
I will have a season in review over the next couple of days.
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