Mar 14, 2015 5 min read

CALIFORNIA – Every good basketball team has one – a person who plays the game hard, dives for loose balls, collects floor burns and bruises, grabs key rebounds, makes a clutch shot or two each game and gets under the skin of the opponent by playing tenacious defense.

In other words, the kind of player you hate to play against but would love to have on your team.

At California University, that player is senior Kaitlynn Fratz.

It was a key series of plays by Fratz, the smallest player on the court, that bailed California out of a sticky situation in the second half Saturday night and sent the top-seeded Vulcans to a 69-64 victory over West Liberty in the NCAA Division II women’s basketball Atlantic Region semifinals at Hamer Hall.

California (28-4) will host third-seeded Bloomsburg (26-4) Monday night (7 p.m.) for the region title. Bloomsburg defeated Shepherd 85-69 to advance. Itwill be the third meeting between Cal and Bloomsburg. The Huskies won at home during the regular season and Cal won at Bloomsburg last weekend in the PSAC semifinals.

Before the Vulcans could begin to think about Round 3 with Bloomsburg they had to survive a rugged and tense game against West Liberty. After falling behind by nine points early in the second half, West Liberty (24-9), the Mountain East Conference champion, came storming back behind the sensational play of point guard Kailee Howe, who scored a game-high 27 points. The Hilltoppers pulled to within 55-53 with less than six minutes and had all the momentum.

That’s when Fratz stole it and gave Cal some breathing room.

After an offensive rebound by Emma Mahady extended a Cal possession, Fratz sank a three-pointer to give the Vulcans a 58-53 lead. On the next possession, Fratz took a hard hit from West Liberty center Kierra Simpson and drew a charging foul. Two possessions later, Fratz jumped and stole a pass in the West Liberty frontcourt, then raced upcourt for a fast-break layup that made it a seven-point Cal lead with 3:16 left.

“More than anything, Kaitlynn does whatever we need to win a game,” Cal coach Jess Strom said. “She has a refuse-to-lose attitude. Whatever plays we need, she’s willing to make. If she doesn’t come up with that steal, then West Liberty has an open three-pointer. Kaitlynn doesn’t want the season to end.”

There will be at least one more game for Cal because the Vulcans made several more key plays and some free throws down the stretch. Fratz had an offensive rebound to extend a possession, CeCe Dixon came off the bench and buried a three-pointer from the corner that made it 63-54 and Miki Glenn made four clutch foul shots.

The Vulcans made 18 of 20 free throws, which helped them overcome shooting only 36 porcent.

“I thought we played very hard and our defense was exceptional,” West Liberty coach Lynn Ullom said. “We needed to make a few more layups and Cal got some timely offensive rebounds late in the game.”

The Vulcans, who improved to 12-1 in NCAA tournament games at Hamer Hall, did a good job of stopping West Liberty’s strength, which is three-point shooting. The Hilltoppers make an average of nine three-pointers per game but were only 2-for-15 from behidn the arc. Leading scorer Liz Flowers drew three early fouls, played only 14 minutes and scored just two points.

Without Flowers, West Liberty relied heavily on Howe, the nation’s leader in assists, to score. She responded by routinely penetrating Cal’s defense on almost every possession, driving through the lane for layups or short jump shots. She spent more time in the paint than Picasso, and made 12 of 28 shots.

“We wanted to hold them to four or fewer threes,” Strom said. “We felt if we could take that away, it would be a big chunk of their offense.”

Hillary Southworth had 17 points and Simpson had 10 for West Liberty, which struggled at times with the physical style of play, which led to more one-on-one offense than the Hilltoppers wanted.

“It was a football game,” Ullom said. “It was amazingly physical. We’re not going to come out on top of that kind of game. We’re a finesse team. Cutters were getting chucked and held. That’s not a criticism of the officials. It’s just the way the game was.”

“It looked like and NBA game,” Strom added.

Glenn, who made all eight of her free throws, led four Cal players in double figures with 18 points. Fratz had 14 points, Irina Kukolj 12 and Mahady 11, including a three-pointer and a three-point play early in the second half.

Strom said keeping Simpson off the boards was a key. Simpson set an NCAA tournament record with 29 rebounds in the fifth-seeded Hilltoppers’ win Friday over West Chester and grabbed 10 against Cal, but only two on the offensive boards.

Bloomsburg used a 14-2 run during the first half to build a 20-point lead and the Huskies increased the gap to 44-21 at halftime.

Morgan Klunk scored 16 points and Camden Boehner had 13 for Bloomsburg, the PSAC East Division champion. Boehner had seven points during the big first-half spurt.

Gabby Flinchum, Shepherd’s 6-3 senior center who had a big game Friday in the Rams’ upset of second-seeded Indiana, scored 20 points but 15 of those came in the second half after the outcome was decided. In the first half, Shepherd (22-10) missed all five of its three-point attempts and made only five of 15 free throws.