by Joe Geni
Sports Editor
The Pioneers—with some difficulty and no small amount of frayed nerves—have defended their home court. Now they’ve got to go on the road.
Starting tonight at Beloit College, Grinnell faces three straight road games against the Buccaneers, Carroll, and Monmouth, before coming home to face St. Norbert on Feb. 7.
“Each of our opponents next week is in the middle of a dogfight for a possible playoff berth and playing on their home court,” cautioned head coach Dave Arseneault in anticipation of road games against three teams with a combined overall mark of 14-30. “When you play someone, and where you play them, can really affect a team’s overall competitiveness, and we will have to play exceedingly well to beat any of them.”
“They’re important games,” added Cole Robertson ‘05. “It’s tough to win on the road, so every game’s important, especially if we want to win conference and host the tournament. Our fate is in our own hands, so we take each of these games as seriously as the others.”
Such desirable mastery of their own destiny has come the way of the Pioneers, who were treading water in the midst of a Midwest Conference logjam a fortnight ago, thanks largely to their performance last weekend. On Saturday, Steve Wood ‘04, fresh off a 31-point effort the previous night, scored a career-high 48 points and finished one assist shy of a triple-double to lead Grinnell in a 150-149 triple-overtime heartstopper over visiting and first-place Lawrence. The win put the Pioneers in prime position to repeat as Midwest Conference champs.
Thus ended a spectacular weekend for Grinnell hoops, with both the men’s and women’s teams sweeping through a pivotal pair of conference games. After effectively removing Carroll from the playoff picture on Friday night, the Pioneers (10-4, 5-2 MWC) moved to within a half-game of Lawrence (12-3, 6-2) in the race for the conference title. By virtue of their win, the Pioneers also own the tie-breaker against the Vikings.
“Saturday’s game was the best I’ve ever been associated with,” said Arseneault. “It resembled a fifteen-round title fight between two evenly matched opponents. Some individuals have the ability to ignore fatigue. On Saturday, you witnessed two teams with that ability.”
The Pioneers shot a middling 27 percent from the 3-point line, but made up for it by hitting 30 0f 37 free throw attempts, including a blistering 18 of 19, or 94.7 percent in the first half. Still, Grinnell had to fight from behind for most of the contest, and didn’t get its first lead until just 10 minutes remained in regulation. When Wood missed a falling turnaround as time expired, the game, knotted at 106-106, headed into overtime.
“It was pretty emotional,” said Robertson, who had 20 points and shot 81.8 percent from the floor. “We thought we had it won, and then the other team came back, and so it was up and down. But each time it started the new period, we were coming out with the same intensity we started the game with. We were starting off 0-0, trying to come out and win that period.”
The third time, it worked, though the hosts escaped by the slimmest of margins. Lawrence, which turned over the ball 31 times and attempted 40 fewer shots, nearly stole the game behind the stellar play of post man Chris Braier, who corralled 23 boards and had 45 points, nearly all on layups and free throws, and forward Brendan Falls, who added 34 more for the visitors.
But Wood proved to be too much for Lawrence to handle. To go with his gaudy point total, Wood grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out nine assists and nabbed six steals. To polish it off, he hit the game-winning layup with 14.1 seconds to go.
Said Arseneault afterwards, “The difference in the outcome was the will of Steve Wood.”
Wood was fouled on his final basket play and missed the free throw, only his second miss from the line in 15 attempts, and left the Pioneers up by only a point. But when Lawrence missed a game-winning 17-footer as time expired, Darby Gym erupted in celebration.
The victory makes it three straight for Grinnell, a streak that also includes a 124-114 victory at St. Norbert on Jan. 18, where the Pioneers lost in the playoffs last year. And despite dropping a pair of road games at Illinois College and Ripon the week before, the Pioneers have returned to form and look ready for a stretch run.
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