Coe holds out slim hope for NCAA bid

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coe's hopes for a dream season went afoul Saturday at Eby Fieldhouse.

The foul-plagued Kohawks scratched and clawed but came up short against Simpson, 65-61, in the Iowa Conference women's basketball tournament championship game.

Simpson (22-5) won its third straight conference tournament title and automatically qualified for its sixth straight NCAA Division III tournament. Coe (19-8) tied Simpson for the regular season title. The Kohawks, ranked No. 5 in the West Region, still have a chance for one of 21 at-large berths when the 64-team field is announced Monday.

“I think it's going to take some divine intervention to get us in,” Coe Coach Randi Peterson said.

Coe, which had an eight-game winning streak that included a home-court win over Simpson two weeks ago, fought back from an 11-point deficit to pull within 59-58 on Kayla Lincoln's 3-pointer with 1:01 left.

The Kohawks trailed 63-61 after Kayla Waskow's basket with 7.6 seconds left, but Simpson's Mindy Hutchcroft made two free throws with 5.7 seconds left and the Storm escaped.

“We just couldn't get that one shot to put us over or that defensive stop,” said Lincoln, who had a game-high 18 points. She scored 16 in the second half after drawing two fouls in the first 2 1/2 minutes and sitting the rest of the first half, which ended with Coe trailing 27-20.

“(Lincoln) is one of the best players and shooters from the 3-point line and (the fouls) put them in a hole a little bit,” Simpson Coach Brian Nieumith said. “But foul trouble hurt both teams.”

Simpson capitalized, making 15 of 18 free throws to Coe's 7 of 12.

“Simpson is a very good team. They're strong and physical,” Peterson said. “We talked about it and said we couldn't get into foul trouble early. Today just wasn't meant to be for us.”

Waskow scored 14 points, running her season total to a school season-record 395.

“I didn't even really know about that,” she said. “My bigger goal was to win a championship.

“Hopefully we can keep on playing. If not, it's going to be a long summer.”