Coupeville’s Makana Stone collected 22 points and 10 rebounds Saturday in a college basketball brawl between highly-ranked teams. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Sometimes your A-game isn’t enough.
Coupeville’s Makana Stone played a sensational game in the big-time spotlight Saturday, but she and her Whitman College women’s basketball team still suffered their first loss.
Reaching the end of a season-opening seven-game road trip, the Blues fell 78-58 in Belton, Texas to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the #7 team in NCAA D-III.
Whitman, which came into the game ranked #12 in the most-recent national poll, falls to 6-1 on the season.
The Blues head back to Walla Walla, where they will play their next six games, starting with the home opener Dec. 13 against the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
Playing in the second game of a back-to-back affair in Texas, Stone threw down 22 points and snared 10 rebounds, both game highs.
Unfortunately, the rest of the Blues lost their shooting touch all at the same time.
While Stone rattled home nine of 14 shots from the field, including netting both of her three-point attempts, the rest of the Whitman roster combined to net 33% on 14-42 shooting.
The Blues still stayed relatively close, at least for awhile, trailing just 19-14 after one quarter of play and 35-28 at the half.
Whitman was unable to mount a sustained comeback, however, and Mary Hardin steadily padded out the lead, using 22-15 and 21-15 runs across the final two quarters to set the final margin.
Stone added two assists and two blocks while playing 33 minutes.
On the season, the former Wolf has tallied 117 points, 50 rebounds, 11 assists, 11 steals, and eight blocks, while shooting 47-79 (59.4%) from the floor and 21-26 (80.7%) at the free throw line.
Saturday’s game was Stone’s 90th as a collegiate player, and with 1,045 points, she moves ever closer to 7th place (1,056) on the Whitman women’s career scoring list.
Leave a Reply