Haskell Lady Indians Hold Off Park Pirates 70-60 for Third Straight Win

(Lawrence, KS) – The Haskell Indian Nations University Lady Indians held off a second half charge by the Park University Pirates to get their third win of season by a final score of 70-60.

Senior guard Jenine Coriz led the (3-0) Indians with 17 points on the evening and sophomore guard Kortney Meat wasn’t to far behind the senior with 14 points of her own. This marked the third straigt game the Haskell Lady’s won by a double-digit score. With the loss, the Pirates moved to (2-1).

After starting the season (2-0) with a few teams from the neighboring KCAC conference the Indians stepped up a division in competition in the NAIA to take on one time conference member Park University, who are now a NAIA division 1 program.

The game started off fast for the Indians after tip-off as Haskell would jump out to a 5-0 lead that would they would hold on to for the first few minutes. Park player Channell Mackey kept the Pirates close to Haskell by scoring a first half team high 12 points. Quality minutes off the bench for Haskell’s Jennah Williams, who had 8 points in the first half, would allow the indians to go in a with a first half lead of 38-33. The Indians and the Pirates tied each other five times in the half with four lead changes.

The Haskell ladies were hampered by Park’s full court press that caused 19 turnovers for the Indians. Park didn’t fair that much better as they had 12 turnovers in the half as well.

Haskell shot 50 percent in the first half to Park’s 44 percent and 45 percent from behind the arc to the Pirates 40 percent. Coriz would have a team high 9 points in the half for the Lady Indians.

In the second half of the game, Haskell’s depth off the bench benefited the Indians as players like Tinanya Murphy and Justina Coriz contributed big minutes and points that allowed Haskell’s lead to jump up to 12 points near the midway of the second half. But just as in the first half, Park’s Channell Mackey would get her team back in the game and eventually tie the Indians and take a small lead. Mackey would finish with a game high 32 points, scoring 20 of them in the second half.

But too much depth for Haskell would doom the Pirates down the stretch as Park went scoreless in the final four minutes that Haskell took advantage of by pushing a small two point lead into double-digit win.

Tinaya Murphy finished in double-digits for the Indians as well as she knocked down 10 points. Haskell’s leading scorer up until this game was Keli Warrior who still managed to get 8 points despite a constant double-team from the Pirates. Jennah Williams would have 8 as well, Justina Coriz added 5, Tahnee Stands had 4, and newcomer this season Cortney Jones would have 3 in her first game of the season.

The Indians will have a handful of days before their next contest which will be on Veterans Day, November 11th, at Coffin Sports Complex against Kansas Wesleyan (1-1). Park University’s previous game was against the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes, it was a game Park won 58-49.

Tip-off is set for 5:30 PM CST and the game can be viewed online at www.haskellatheltics.com