Serious case of Lions’ fever

Tony Altobelli

I’m not supposed to get emotionally involved with NAIA basketball

am I?

I didn’t even know I could, for that matter, even if I wanted to.

It was 2 a.m. Sunday morning, however, and I was still trying to come

down from the Adrenalin rush following Saturday night’s Golden State

Athletic Conference doubleheader between Vanguard University and Biola.

Now, before you dismiss me as someone in serious need of getting a

life, please allow me to try and explain what I went through.

The women got the festivities off with a blast. Biola freshman (that’s

right, freshman!) Sarah Baird completely picked the Lions apart. She

looked like Larry Bird out there, hitting 7 of 11 from the field,

including four three-pointers in the first half, scoring 21 points. At

one point, she scored 18 points in a row for the Eagles.

While Baird was hitting jumpers left and right, the Lions were trying

to find new and exciting ways to turn the ball over and rapidly age their

coach, Russ Davis.

Finally, senior Becki Huddle grabbed the bull by the horns and played

bigger than your normal 5-foot-4 point guard. She scored 10 points,

grabbed seven rebounds (did I mention she was 5-4?) dished out five

assists, sold six bags of popcorn, parked nine cars and led the crowd in

the singing of the Village People classic, “YMCA.”

The Lions led by two and decided to put a radar lock on Baird.

Unfortunately for Vanguard, the Eagles’ Sarah (don’t call me Ricardo)

Montavon got hot and took over for Baird in the hot-shooting department,

scoring 19 of her 23 points after halftime.

The Lions found a way to limit their turnovers (only five in the

second half) and also got center Kelly Boeke involved offensively. She

scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half.

Despite the improved play, the Eagles’ 50% second-half shooting gave

them a seven-point lead with less than two minutes remaining.

Time for Rachel Fikse to step up and be heard. With the Lions down by

five, she came up huge down the stretch, forcing the Eagles into a

turnover and draining a three-pointer to bring the visitors back from the

dead.

The senior then tied the game with 11 seconds left, giving the Lions a

second chance in overtime.

Despite Baird’s 33 points and the bazillion clutch shots she made

throughout the game, it was her two missed free throws with 17 seconds

left in overtime that gave Vanguard one last chance at a win.

Huddle, trying to draw a foul, scurried down the lane and missed her

layup opportunity, but guess who was there to be a hero?

You guessed it. Fikse grabbed the loose ball and, with one second

left, drained a six-footer for the 77-76 win.

Whew!

How could the men’s game top that?

Well, someone forgot to tell the Lions they were supposed to get

hammered by the conference-leading Eagles. Biola was 14-2, ranked fifth

in the galaxy and every player was over nine-feet tall! Well, it looked

that way, at least, compared to the Lions’ small, but spunky bunch.

Instead of fearing the bigger, stronger Eagles, Vanguard just nailed

jumper after jumper on them.

They outhustled the Eagles, outplayed the Eagles and outscored the

Eagles, 30-8, at one point.

It was some of the hottest shooting I’d ever seen. Dennis Keane, Kemmy

Burgess and Brandon Cablay went nuts on Biola, giving the Lions a

16-point lead.

Apparently the alarm clock went off in every Biola player’s head,

because all of a sudden, the momentum shifted faster than you could say,

“Where is Vanguard University again?”

A 43-16 Eagles’ run gave Biola the lead, the momentum and apparently

the game.

But not so fast. Nothing like a few three-pointers to rapidly shave

into a lead. Vanguard hit three treys in the final minute to cut the lead

to three.

Biola, doing a nice imitation of Chris Webber in the 1993 NCAA

championship game, called a timeout when it had no timeouts remaining.

The brain cramp gave the Lions a gift point and, following two made

free throws from each team, Vanguard actually had an opportunity to tie

the game in the final seconds.

During a subsequent Lions’ timeout, a member of the Vanguard student

body, wrestling with a Biola fan to further excite the masses,

body-slammed the Biola fan to the court. The VU fan was escorted out of

the gym by security, while the Biola fan tried to figure out what planet

he was on.

Then, Vanguard’s hopes of overtime ended with a missed shot at the

buzzer, sealing a 73-71 Biola victory.

The point I’m trying to make is that both the Vanguard men’s and

women’s basketball teams are exciting to watch and they’re a sand wedge

away from where you live. Feel free to drop by the Pit and tell them Tony

sent ya. Don’t make me send the body-slammer after you!