Saturday, March 2 will be a day to remember for the seniors on the Ichabod women’s basketball team. All five seniors got the nod to start for the Ichabods on Senior Day against the Griffons from Missouri Western State. From the beginning the Ichabods were dominating on both offense and defense. The Ichabods would close out the game winning, 78-68

After an early miscalculated pass that would lead a griffon score, the Ichabods would settle down and jump to a 7-2 lead. Even though the Ichabods had a lead, the Griffons were attacking relentlessly while the Ichabod offense was at a standstill. 

Missouri Western was able to trim the lead to 9-7, but then the Ichabod offense came alive again. On back-to-back possessions, sophomore guard Hunter Bentley and senior Taylor Blue, hit two threes after fantastic ball movement to give the Ichabods a little more breathing room. At the end of the first quarter, the Ichabods led 15-10

The Ichabods and Griffons would trade blows until Bentley grabbed a missed three point shot and took the ball up to hoop with some authority. After making a free-throw on the ensuing foul, the Ichabod lead would increase. By the end of the half the Ichabods head into the break with a resounding 40-22 lead. To cap off the scoring run, Blue hit a clutch three with 2 seconds left in the half. 

The Griffons were doing everything they could to get back in the game. The Ichabods seemed to relax more coming out of the break. Five minutes into the third quarter, the Griffons were looking like the team on the attack, but the Ichabod lead was still growing in small increments as they led 54-33. At the end of the third quarter, the Ichabod lead was trimmed to 58-41.

The Griffon attack would keep trimming the lead as they were continuously hustling the Ichabods. The lead would be cut all the way down to under ten points after a Griffon layup, 61-52.  With less than three minutes to go in the game, the Griffons were threatening to make a run, but on defense they could not stop the Ichabods. The Ichabods were able to close the game out making most of their free-throws in crunch time. The Ichabods finished off the Griffons, 78-68.

After the game, senior forward Nicole Murugarren was all smiles after winning her final home game on Senior Day. 

“Well I think we did pretty good today. It was kind of sad, but at the same time it was happy to finish in that way,” Murugarren said. “We executed pretty well today even though we had a tough game on Thursday.”

Blue’s focus at the end of the game was not on Senior Day, but on the next game.

“I think I could have done way better. Offensively, the balls were dropping, but defensively there were a lot of things we could have done better,” Blue said. “I think It would have been nice to keep them from coming back.”