The Gogebic Community College Samsons began post-season play on Saturday, March 4th as they traveled to Bismarck, ND. The NJCAA Region XIII tournament games were hosted by United Tribes Technical College and the Samsons faced the Ladyjacks of Dakota College Bottineau in the first round.
With their last regular season game getting cancelled due to bad weather, the Samsons last game was on Wednesday, February 8th, so they were excited to return to game play. Despite a valiant second-half comeback attempt, the Samsons fell to the DCB Ladyjacks, 61-49.
GCC scored the first 2 points of the game as Emily Nelson drilled a long jumper, but DCB immediately fired back, scoring the next 13 points. With 3:01 left in the quarter, DCB was up 13-2 and fouls started to mount for the Samsons. Despite the fouls and slow offensive start, GCC was able to hit some shots to end the quarter as they trailed the Ladyjacks 19-9.
DCB's Jacie Hall went to work in the low post to begin the second quarter as she drew two quick fouls on GCC and converted on all her free throws. Kylee Hewitt was called for her second personal foul with 7:46 left in the quarter, but on the next possessions for the Samsons, Hall picked up her second and third personal foul and she headed to the bench. Without Hall on the court, DCB really focused on their defense, particularly their full court press. The press rattled GCC and the Samsons began to struggle with turnovers and the increased pressure made it tough for them to score. Despite their best player being in foul trouble, DCB extended their lead to 33-17 at halftime. The increased defensive pressure from the Ladyjacks forced 16 first-half Samson turnovers. DCB was also more aggressive on the offensive glass as they nabbed 12 offensive rebounds in the first half compared to only 2 for GCC.
Hewitt scored inside for the Samsons on their first possession of the second half, then Nelson found some offense of her own from the charity stripe. Nelson drew fouls on the next two possessions for GCC and made two of the four attempts, bringing the score to 36-20 with 6:30 left in the third quarter. Both teams traded buckets and behind 5 consecutive points from Jasmine Redhouse, the Samsons pulled within 12 of the Ladyjacks (41-29) with 1:53 to go in the quarter, which is as close as GCC would get to the DCB in the third quarter. In the last 90 seconds of the third quarter, Ida Bengtsson, Hewitt and Nelson were all called for their fourth personal foul. After multiple trips to the free throw line, DCB lead 44-29 at the end of the third quarter.
Despite facing foul trouble and only having 7 players, GCC continued to battle and wouldn't back down. After Hewitt was called for an offensive foul which was her fifth personal foul, the Samsons rallied and went on a run to cut into the DCB lead. After buckets from Nelson, Bengtsson and Redhouse, GCC cut the lead to 11, (50-39) with just over five minutes to go. This was as close as the Samsons would get as two more GCC players (Bengtsson and Phoenix Corbine) fouled out to end the game. The Samsons had to finish the game with 4 players on the court and the DCB Ladyjacks won the contest, 61-49.
Jacie Hall led the Ladyjacks with 25 points and 11 rebounds. The Samsons were led by Nelson who had 16 points and 7 rebounds. Redhouse had 13 points and 7 rebounds, while Hewitt chipped in 10 points and 8 rebounds.
