The GCC Samsons fell 90-71 to the Thunderbirds of United Tribes Technical College on Sunday, March 3rd at the LSCC on the GCC campus in Ironwood, MI. This was the Region XIII Championship Game.
The Thunderbirds jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, but Sophomore Kylee Hewitt got GCC on the board when she hit a short jumper with 8:06 to go. After a quick UTTC bucket, Freshman Emmy Bobula scored for the Samsons with a nice putback underneath. Although this brought GCC within three points of the Thunderbirds, UTTC upped their offensive intensity for the remainder of the quarter as they led 32-14 after one quarter.
The Samsons responded to the hot shooting quarter by the Thunderbirds as GCC outscored UTTC 23-16 in the second quarter. The Samsons found their rhythm offensively, and fought back hard to get back into the game. Defensively, the Samsons locked in and were able to slow down the fast-paced Thunderbird offense. Led by Hewitt, Freshmen Kate Borseth and KD Beeksma, GCC whittled the Thunderbird advantage to single digits with 3:38 left in the second quarter as the Samsons only trailed 41-32. In that 18-point offensive spurt, Hewitt had four points, Borseth scored nine and Beeksma chipped in five. Although the Thunderbirds scored on their next possession, Freshman Annabelle Besonen scored for GCC, keeping the UTTC lead at only 9. The Thunderbirds then scored on consecutive possessions, but a 3-pointer from Freshman Lilly Johnson with less than a minute to go kept the Samsons close as the quarter wound down and GCC only trailed by 11, 48-37 at the half.
UTTC was the aggressor as the third quarter began and the Thunderbirds quickly increased their lead to 15, 56-41 with 8:17 left in the quarter. GCC didn't back down as they fought back just like they did in the previous quarter. The Samsons went on a 10-4 run, and again cut the Thunderbirds lead to single digits 60-51 with 3:56 left in the quarter. Unfortunately, UTTC responded with a run of their own. The Thunderbirds outscored the Samsons 12-2 for the remainder of the quarter and GCC trailed 72-53 heading into the final quarter.
Although both teams scored 18 points in the final quarter, the lead the Thunderbirds built in the first three quarters was just too much for the Samsons, who ultimately fell short, 90-71.
Hewitt led the Samsons with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 blocked shot. Borseth scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for GCC, while Johnson chipped in 10 points, 5 rebounds and one blocked shot.
Both Hewitt and Borseth were named to the Region XIII All-Tournament Team.
