Pioneers fall to IC

by Kevin Byrne

Staff Writer

Blueboys blow by higher-ranked competition to sieze the MWC’s automatic NCAA bid

“One loss will not overshadow an incredible string of great moments this group pieced together.”

These were the words of men’s basketball head coach Dave Arsenault when asked if he thought the 2002-2003 season was a success. Despite his positive outlook, many of the players feel a bit less satisfied after last week’s stunning 101-91 loss to the Illinois College Blue Boys in the championship game of the Midwest Conference Tournament. The Pioneers beat Ripon in their first game of the tournament on Friday, Feb. 28 by a score of 112-107 behind the shooting of Steve Nordlund ‘04, who had 20 points, 18 of them on three-point field goals, and Ken Heiser ‘04, who had 18 points of his own.

Illinois College beat Lawrence in overtime, 86-77 to gain a spot in the tournament championship game on Saturday in Darby Gym. The Pioneers were ready to face any team, confident they could overcome any opponent. However, it didn’t matter who the opponent was on Saturday afternoon because Grinnell could not overcome extremely poor shooting. The Pioneers shot 28.1% from the field, including 22.6% from behind the three-point line.

“I wouldn’t have predicted such a flat shooting performance from so many people,” Arsenault remarked. “In the end, that was our downfall. I believe we could play IC another 15 times in that same setting and not lose a game. But on that one day, when we were shooting so poorly as a team, we were vulnerable, and they took full advantage of the opportunity to steal one in Darby.”

Steve Wood ‘04, who finished the season leading the team in scoring with an average of 24.4 points a game and 611 total points, was also very disappointed in the team’s shooting performance.

“We picked a really bad time to shoot terribly,” he said. “We were devastated by the IC loss. They came in to our gym in front of our fans and just took it to us. They outplayed us and deserved to win. Losing hurts bad enough, but to lose in front of our fans like that was embarrassing and depressing.”

The Pioneers led only once throughout the game, when the score was 8-5, and faced a 16-point deficit at halftime. This proved to be too big of a hole to dig out of, and though Grinnell subsequently closed to within three points, the Blueboys eventually pulled away.

Despite the tough defeat, and not gaining a bid to the NCAA tournament, the men’s team is still the Midwest Conference Champions of 2002-03, and that is nothing to be frowned upon.

“I have said all season that winning the conference regular season was more meaningful to me that winning the conference tournament because it is harder to do,” Wood commented. “A team can get hot for a weekend and win the tournament. We needed to be clutch and consistent for 16 games to win the regular season and we were.”

The Pioneers had an extremely successful season, finishing with a 19-6 overall record, and had many players have spectacular seasons. Wood was named MWC Player of the Year, and voted to first team All-Conference, while Heiser was voted to second team All-Conference. Steve Nordlund led all of NCAA Division III basketball in three point field goals per game, averaging 4.8.

The Pioneers should be back next year stronger than ever and ready to defend their conference title.

“Though we lose one of our toughest players in Zach Carlson as well as Jim Shaw and Jon Ekhoff,” Wood said, “I feel we are primed to win the conference again next season and should be the favorite to do so.”

The Sea of Red, which had 1400 and 1500 fans in the stands for the two playoff games, should be back in force next year to cheer on another successful Grinnell basketball season.

“I would like to personally thank all the students who came out and made Darby Gym such a wonderful setting for basketball this winter,” Coach Arsenault said. “There is no question that we are the envy of our league when it comes to student support. We have some holes to fill, but if our returnees remain hungry then we’ll be doing this again next February.”