Millikin balance halts Huskies’ Div. III title run

NORFOLK, Va. – Junior guard Lindsey Koehn scored 17 points to lead the Millikin University to a 66-60 win over the University of Southern Maine in an NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball National semifinal game Friday at the Jane P. Batten Center.

With the win, the Big Blue improved to 28-2 and advanced to play Randolph-Macon College for the NCAA Division III national championship today.

Randolph-Macon earned its spot with a 70-65 win over Scranton. The loss snapped Southern Maine’s school-record 28-game winning streak and dropped the Huskies’ overall record to 30-3. The Huskies will play Scranton in the third-place game at 12:30 p.m. today.

USM junior forward Megan Myles led all scorers with 28 points and junior forward Ashley Marble added a double-double with 27 points and a game-high 16 rebounds. Myles and Marble combined to score 55 of the Huskies’ 60 points in the loss.

Koehn led five Millikin players in double figures as the Big Blue shot a solid 43.8 percent from the field on a 21-for-48 effort, including a 42.1 percent mark from 3-point range (8-of-19). Junior forward Joanna Conner and sophomore guard Christi Blackburn each scored 13 points, while senior guard Audrey Minott added 10 points and freshman forward Lindsay Ippell chipped in with 11.

After the teams battled to a 28-28 tie in the first half, the Huskies clung to a slim three-point lead, 40-37, with 11:27 remaining to play following a pair of Myles free throws.

Millikin’s Minott quickly erased her team’s deficit, draining her second 3-pointer of the game to knot the score with 11:14 left and igniting a 7-0 run for the Big Blue.

Keohn hit the second of two free-throw tries and was followed by a Blackburn “3” to giving Millikin a 44-40 edge with just over 10 minutes on the clock.

Millikin hung onto its lead and led by as many as seven points, 61-54, with 2:29 remaining following two free throws from Minott. The Huskies continued to fight their way back into the game, cutting the Big Blue lead to two, 62-60, with 27 seconds left as Marble converted on three straight layups for the Huskies. Marble connected on her first layup off of an assist from junior guard Katie Frost to cut the Millikin lead to five, 61-56, with 2:09 to go.

Marble then came up with a steal and raced up the court for the score to pull the Huskies to within three, 61-58. Millikin’s Connor hit for one of two free throws with 1:09 to play to put the Big Blue ahead 62-58, before Marble grabbed one of her five offensive rebounds and hit the putback to bring the Huskies to within two points, 62-60 with less than a minute to play.

Forced to foul, the Huskies put Millikin’s Minott on the line and she calmly hit two free throws to increase the Big Blue’s lead to 64-60 with 25 seconds to play. After a missed 3-point attempt, the Huskies again fouled, and this time it was Blackburn who drained a pair of free throws for the 66-60 final.

Southern Maine finished the game shooting just 34.4 percent from the floor and was 7-for-22 from the 3-point line.

Millikin (28-2) 66

Zimmerman 1-0-2, Kochn 6-2-17, Conner 4-5-13, Minott 2-4-10, Ippel 5-1-11, Blackburn 3-4-13, Vollmer, Riebock

Southern Maine (30-3) 60

Cowing 1-1-3, Marble 10-4-27, Myles 10-4-28, Kynoch 1-0-2, Sibley, Frost, Sylvain

3-pt. goals: Blackburn 3, Kochn 3, Minott; Myles 4, Marble 3

Halftime: 28-28