The GCC Samsons fell to the Bobcats of Bryant & Stratton College 83-55 on Saturday, January 6th, at the Lindquist Center in Ironwood, MI.
Despite early turnovers from both teams, the scored stayed tight during the opening quarter. Both teams traded baskets early on. Although the Bobcats took their largest lead of the quarter at 15-9 with under a minute left, GCC Freshman Kate Borseth made sure that 6-point lead didn't last long as she scored to end the quarter, putting the Samsons just down four, 15-11.
Both teams started to find their offensive rhythm in second quarter as scoring began to heat up. Sophomore Kylee Hewitt scored for GCC to start the quarter with a nice up and under move, going to her right hand and the Samsons trailed 15-13. After a quick Bobcat score, Emmy Bobula stole the ball and immediately scored for GCC. Bryant & Stratton went on a small run to go up 21-15, but Hewitt answered with a nice putback inside for GCC. Borseth started to attack the basket and hit the offensive glass, which allowed the Samson freshman to get to the line frequently, which kept things close. After Borseth hit her third pair from the stripe to bring GCC within 3, 28-25 with 3:18 left, fellow Freshman KD Beeksma drilled a 3-pointer on the next Samsons possession, which tied things up at 28. After a GCC foul, the Bobcats went up 2 after nailing the free throws, but Borseth got the line again and hit her fourth pair of free throws in the quarter, knotting things up again at 30 with 2:14 to go. The Bobcats went on a 6-0 run to finish the quarter and went into halftime up 36-30.
Bryant & Stratton came out firing in the third quarter and outscored the Samsons 28-6. The quarter began with a 7-0 run as they went up 43-30. Borseth finally got GCC on the board in the quarter as she scored inside and was fouled. She hit the free throw for three points the hard way and got the Samsons within 10, 43-33. Unfortunately, the Bobcat offense rolled throughout the rest of the quarter, and Bryant & Stratton led 64-36 after three quarters.
The Samsons got hot from 3-point land in the fourth quarter and hit 5 from beyond the arc in the final quarter. Borseth and Annabelle Besonen both hit one and Sophomore Hanna Hoskin drilled three. GCC and Bryant & Stratton both scored 19 in the fourth quarter, but the Samsons just couldn't overcome the third quarter deficit and ended up falling 83-55.
Borseth led the Samsons with 19 points, while Hewitt and Hoskin both chipped in 12 points. All 7 active players scored for GCC in the contest.
