Gardner leads George Fox to Division-III final four
Sandy graduate B.B. Gardner
George Fox University / Photo courtesy of
The Hope University women’s basketball team is heading home for the NCAA Division III Final Four held on their campus in Holland, Mich., this weekend. But George Fox made sure that the Flying Dutch returned as spectators rather than participants after pulling out a 58-46 win in Saturday’s sectional finals in Kentucky.
The No. 3-ranked Bruins were helped to the win by the stellar defense of Gresham graduate Kristen Shielee and some timely long-range shooting from Sandy alum B.B. Gardner.
“I’m not going to lie, this was the most nervous I have ever been before a game,” Gardner said. “Coming in, being so nervous, I knew it was going to take some great basketball to advance.”
George Fox slipped behind by three points early in the second half but took command of the game on back-to-back treys from Gardner and Sage Indendi to build a 48-38 lead with 6:36 to play. Gardner finished with 11 points, shooting 3 for 5 (.600) from behind the arc. She also had six rebounds and three assists.
“We knew coming in that it was going to take some huge performances, and luckily I was one of them to come through,” Gardner said. “We talked about stepping up and what it was going to take to advance to the final four.”
The Bruins easily protected their lead behind stifling defense, holding Hope 17 points under its lowest output of the season. Shielee did the most damage, holding down the middle of the court with nine blocked shots. She also contributed nine rebounds and six points.
Hope connected on only 22 percent of its shots and went a meager 2 for 13 (.154) from a 3-point range, including four straight misses to seal its fate in the final minutes.
The win avenged the Bruins’ Sweet 16 loss to Hope last season.
George Fox, the only unbeaten team left, will take on the College of New Jersey (27-4) in a national semifinal game Friday, March 20. The Lions defeated Scranton 54-48 last weekend.
“It’s in the back of your head early in the season (advancing to the final four), but I don’t think any of us were prepared for this,” Gardner said. “To think we are actually headed to Michigan and are this close to a national championship is an amazing feeling. We just are going to go out and battle and try and finish this amazing season with a title.”
The other semifinal matches No. 6 Washington-St. Louis against No. 11 Amherst. The Washington squad is coming off a 58-53 win over top-ranked Illinois-Wesleyan and is making its eighth Final Four appearance. This is the first time any of the other three teams have reached this level of the playoffs.
“To think we could lose all five starters from last year’s very good team, take a bunch of freshmen and only four returning players, and go to the Final Four would have been almost too much to believe,” Bruins’ coach Scott Rueck said.