Kati Harty scored 25 points to lead the ProBuild Lions to a 81-63 victory over Lely Amsterdam. It was the sixth victory over Lely, including one in the pre-season.
Marie Hoogstraten contributed 15 points, Belinda Bos had 11 and Molly McDowell chipped in with 9 points. McDowell came off the bench to play 27 minutes.
Anouk Biesters made her long-expected comeback after an absence of almost a year. The forward played for 15 minutes, scored 6 points and had 4 steals.
The Lions trailed by 6 points early in the game, but closed the gap and finished the first period leading 19-11.
With 20 seconds to go and leading only 35-29 before the break, Molly McDowell dribbled the ball for 18 seconds before setting up Marie Hoogstraten for a 3-pointer, 38-29.
Entering the last quarter with a 56-49 lead, the Lions pulled the game away in the first four minutes, widening the margin to 68-53 behind 7 points from Belinda Bos.
What can we say? It's the 5th time ProBuild and Lely meet this season. One pre-season exhibition game, two times in the preliminary rounds of the Final Four tournament, one time in the Dutch Cup Tournament and one regular competition game.
Five wins for the Lions.
Coach Laki Lakner officially announced the return of forward Anouk Biesters in Saturday's game. Last season season Biesters averaged 13,7 points and 4,5 rebounds before her season ended because of a serious knee injury. After having surgery in June revalidation took almost 8 months.
On the video Biesters is working with 10 years-old talent Quincy Baars.
Karen Heinen and Marloes Soffner are still on the injured list.
Game starts at 7:30 PM CET. On this website and twitter.com there will be live game updates.
Lions Rout Woonbron DAS
Author: Henk Wals
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: February 20, 2010
Marijn Neyndorff nailed seven 3-pointers, including six in the final period, as the Lions posted a 45-90 rout of Woonbron DAS.
3-point specialist Neyndorff finished with a season-high 21 points. Kati Harty contributed 16 points and Belinda Bos had a second straight double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Molly McDowell saw her first action on the court since she broke her wrist on January 16th. Anouk Biesters and Karen Heinen were kept on the bench by coach Laki Lakner. Jasmijn Overbeeke suffered from an ear infection and did not came from the bench until the third period, when she played for 6 minutes.
With Woonbron DAS starters Joanna Semerda, Reggie Maddox and Irene Sloof did not play due to various injuries.
Coach Lakner said his team had a cold start, missing the first 9 3-point-attempts and committing 8 turnovers in the first quarter. "DAS is one of the best defending teams in the league, so scoring 90 points against them is not bad. We designed some special plays, which work quite well against them this season, if our shots fall. Tonight they did, obviously."
The Lions shot 47.9% from the floor.
ProBuild trailed 12-8 after the first period, shooting 0-out-of-9 from behind the 3-point line and committing 8 turnovers.
In the second period, when ProBuild trailed 13-17, coach Lakner ordered a full court press. A 2-19 run followed, which took the Lions to a 19-32 lead.
At intermission ProBuild led 24-37, building the lead to a 24-point margin after the third period.
In the last period Marijn Neyndorff took over, draining six 3-pointers to help the Lions to outscore Woonbron 12-33 in the period.
Saturday the ProBuild Lions meet Woonbron DAS in the city of Delft.
DAS won 3-out-of-7 games until now. Last week coach Humphrey ten Haver's team suffered a 51-54 loss to HLB Accountans. Starters Joanna Semerda and Irene Sloof both were injured.
The Lions' injury-troubles seem to have come to an end. Kati Harty, Molly McDowell and Anouk Biesters are cleared to play, though McDowell and Biesters probably will see limited minutes of playing time, if at all.
Only Karen Heinen remains in sickbay.
ProBuild and Woonbron met twice this season. The first regular completion game, the Lions posted a 78-58 victory. The second meeting took place in the semis of the Final Four tournament, which was won 71-61 by ProBuild.
Game starts at 7:00 CET PM in the beautiful medieval city of Delft.
The ProBuild Lions took a 75-52 loss to the Amsterdam CTO development team on Tuesday night. Kati Harty, Molly McDowell, Karen Heinen and Anouk Biesters did not play due to injuries.
13-years old junior guard Beau Baars made her debut and responded with 5 points in 10 minutes of playing time.
Tuesday night the Lions will practice in an exhibition game vs CTO Amsterdam, a development team of young Dutch talents.
The Lions too will show up in an all-Dutch line-up. Molly McDowell is still recovering from her wrist-injury. Kati Harty needs a few days rest to recover from a minor muscle strain in her upper leg.
13-years old junior Beau Baars is scheduled make her debut at point guard.
Lions hold off Celeritas
Author: Henk Wals
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: February 13, 2010
Kati Harty scored 25 points and Jasmijn Overbeeke pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds as the ProBuild Lions posted a 72-62 victory over Celeritas Groningen.
Overbeeke also stuffed her stats with 14 points, 6 steals, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots.
Belinda Bos contributed 14 points and Ilana Vergunst chipped in with 10.
With Celeritas American guard Megan Griffith scored 20 points and Rachel Roubehie-Fissa had 10.
The Lions had trouble holding off Groningen, who are just 1-game-out-of-10, but smelled the blood of the nr.1 Lions in the last period, when Celeritas rallied from a 52-38 deficit to a 4-point margin, 52-48.
It was Kati Harty who responded, scoring 11 points in the last 4 minutes to pull the game away.
Harty played through a muscle strain in her upper leg, but saw her time on the floor limited to just 22 minutes. Molly McDowell, Anouk Biesters and Karen Heinen did not play due to injuries. McDowell and Biesters are expected to return soon, but Heinen, who had a concussion and is still suffering form headaches, will be out for a few weeks.
Coach Lakner said that the injuries are beginning to hurt the team. "Having to battle until the last minute against the second-last seeded team, that says enough. With three starters missing, Kati playing at 60% and Marie having a total off-night, we obviously struggled. But we took the 2 points, as we did in all games since Molly got injured. So, all-in-all, we are doing a great job."
ProBuild led 21-20 after the first period. After trailing 25-26 five minutes into the second, Ilana Vergunst and Nadine Boesaart both nailed a 3-pointer to help the Lions taking the lead for good, 31-26.
At the break ProBuild held a 40-34 advantage. Marijn Neyndorff took the lead to double digits from behind the arc, 49-38. Entering the fourth period with a 52-40 edge, the Lions saw their lead melt away to 57-53 with 4 minutes to go.
That was when Laki Lakner asked Kati Harty to re-enter the game.
Good move.
Harty made a steal and took it to the basket, 59-53.
Harty picked up the ball from the floor after Megan Griffith left it there (wrongly assuming a time-out was called) and made a lay-up, 61-53.
Harty drained a 3-pointer after Groningen had responded, 64-55.
Again, Celeritas took it to a 4 point-margin in the last minute, 66-62, but Kati Harty kept her cool at the free-throw line, converting 4-out-of-4 attempts. Jasmijn Overbeeke also hit two shots from the stripe, taking the Lions to a 10-point victory.
Saturday ProBuild Lions hosts Celeritudo Donar in their first meeting of this season. Donar has won 1-out-of 10 games, a 77-52 victory over Lely Amsterdam.
The last loss to Celeritudo was recorded on February 16th, 2002, when ProBuild suffered a 53-47 defeat in Groningen. American Annie Lester scored 20 points and former Dutch WNBA-player Sandra van Embricqs chipped in with 8 points.
Back to 2010. Saturday forward Anouk Biesters is expected to re-debut after an absence of 10 months due to a knee-injury. Last season Biesters averaged 13.7 ppg.
Game starts at 7:30 PM CET.
Lions Top Amazone again
Author: Henk Wals
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: February 7, 2010
Kati Harty scored 23 points to lead the ProBuild Lions to a 81-66 victory over AutoCAD Amazone.
ProBuild has won 4 games straight over AutoCAD this season. This loss causes Amazone to lose the nr 1 spot, which is now shared by ProBuild and HLB Accountants.
Jasmijn Overbeeke and Belinda Bos both posted a double-double. Bos had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Overbeeke 11 points and 13 rebounds. Marie Hoogstraten and Ilana Vergunst both contributed 13 points.
Molly McDowell and Karen Heinen did not play due to injuries. Anouk Biesters officially is off the injured list, but did not get any playing time yet.
"It is nice to see other players step up to compensate for the absence of three starters", coach Laki Lakner said. "However, this was not a good game. We capitalized on our individual qualities, and not so much on executing our game plan. Somehow it always gets a little messy, when we play Amazone."
After 8 minutes in the first quarter the Lions trailed 17-11, but Kati Harty and Nadine Boesaart both nailed a 3-pointer to help the Lions take 19-21 lead after the period.
Kati Harty capped a 0-9 run by splitting a pair of free throws to put the Lions up 19-30 in the 6th minute of the second period. At intermission ProBuild led 30-41.
In the third period Belinda Bos scored 8 points in a 0-13 surge to stretch the Lions' lead to 20 points, 40-60.
Entering the 4th period with a 50-65 deficit Amazone launched a last offensive. Heather Zurich and Amber Jackson both scored 4 points to cut the margin to just 6 points early in the quarter.
The answer came from Marie Hoogstraten and Jasmijn Overbeeke, also combining for 8 straight points. Ilana Vergunst capped the 0-10 run with a jumper: 59-75 (picture on the Dutch page).
After this the Lions cruised to their 4th straight win after the loss to Grasshoppers and losing Molly McDowell.
Sunday ProBuild Lions do not have to travel far to meet AutoCAD Amazone in Vleuten near Utrecht. It is just a 30-minute bus ride away.
AutoCAD, ProBuild and HLB share the number 1 spot, but that is going to chance after the weekend.
The Amazones will not be at full strength on Sunday, but the same goes for the Lions.
Amzone's guard Francis Donders suffered from a serious knee injury last game and will be out for at least three weeks. Marloes Renskers, AutoCAD's other guard, also has knee-problems. Forward Heather Zurich sprained her ankle last weekend, it is unsure if she will be able to play on Sunday.
With the Lions Karen Heinen and Molly McDowell are still injured. The good news is, after almost 10 months forward Anouk Biesters seems to be fully recovered from knee-surgery and practiced at full force this week.
However, coach Lakner is not planning to let her re-debut in Vleuten."We are not in a hurry", he said. "This is not a good game for Anouk to return. We are not going to take any risks with her. She's going to be of great importance to us at the end of the season. "
Game starts at 3:30 PM CET.
Lions hold off Binnenland
Author: Henk Wals
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: January 30, 2010
Kati Harty had 17 points and 7 steals to lead the ProBuild Lions to a 78-52 victory over Challenge Sport/Binnenland.
Jasmijn Overbeeke added 13 points and 9 rebounds. Ilana Vergunst contributed 13 points, including three 3-pointers.
The Lions were without Molly McDowell (broken wrist) and Karen Heinen, who suffered from a concussion after colliding with Sharon Beld in last week's game at Tubbergen.
Coach Laki Lakner said he had expected a tough game. "Binnenland is a good team, with some very tall players, 6-3 or more. But we did a very good job on them defensively and held them to just 52 points. On offense we created a lot of good looks at the basket and we hit a good percentage of our shots, around 43%."
The Lions trailed 2-8, but put up a 13-2 run to take a 15-10 lead. Coach Rob Brand of Binnenland had ordered a double team on Kati Harty and the other four Lions took advantage of that. Marijn Neyndorff hit two 3-pointers and Nadine Boesaart nailed a third one. At the end of the period Ilana Vergunst made it 22-14 from behind the arc.
In the second period the Lions extended the margin to 41-23 at intermission.
Jessica Richter scored all of her 11 points in the third period to keep the margin more or less the same (60-38 after the quarter). In the fourth Lakner took Kati Harty out of the game for the first time and let in his reserves. They responded well, and rookie Eline Vink hit a short jumper in the 7th minute to give ProBuild it largest lead, 76-45.
Saturday ProBuild hosts Challenge Sports/Binnenland from Rotterdam.
Nr. 5 Binnenland has won 3-out-of-5 games until now, including a stunning away-win over AutoCAD Amazone. Last week Challenge Sports posted a 71-51 victory over Celeritas Donar.
In August 2009 Binnenland signed American guard Launa Hochstetler from Valparaiso University. Valparaiso finished second last in the Horizon League, which was led by Green Bay, the team of Kati Harty. So, most likely the ladies have met before.
Recently Hochstetler got company of fellow American Jessica Richter, who was signed in January and played for Vanguard University of Southern California in the NAIA.
Bound to be a hit in Greenbay: the final 90 seconds of the game Eurosped Twente vs ProBuild Lions, with Kati Harty (5) pouring in 12 points. With Eurosped's Sharon Beld's blood-drawing collision with ProBuild's Karen Heinen as a starter.
Harty, Lions Overcome Eurosped
Author: Henk Wals
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: January 24, 2009
Kati Harty scored 12 of her 25 points in the last two minutes of the game, and ProBuild Lions rallied from a 6-point deficit to beat Eurosped Twente 87-83.
Before she started her last minute-heroics Harty had a slow night, with 13 points and 8 turnovers playing at the point guard position replacing injured Molly McDowell.
Jasmijn Overbeeke posted a season high 21 points and 7 rebounds. Ilana Vergunst chipped in with 11, including three 3-pointers.
Coach Laki Lakner said it was an important win. "We took two tough games without Molly. Tonight we got away, thanks to Katy's heroics in the last two minutes. She compensated brilliantly for her less brilliant performance in the first 38 minutes of the game."
Ilana Vergunst scored three consecutive 3-pointers in the first period, but could not prevent that ProBuild trailed 20-24 after the quarter.
Entering the break the Lions looked at a 38-49 deficit.
Maybe thanks to coach Lakner's motivation speech in the locker room and Molly McDowell's talk during a huddle on the court the Lions started the third period a little more aggressive.
Belinda Bos and Jasmijn Overbeeke both scored and Kati Harty nailed a 3-pointer to put up a 7-0 run that made it 49-45. A few possessions later Jasmijn Overbeeke scored 52-52, tying the game.
At the end of the period Karen Heinen and Sharon Beld of Eurosped bumped into each other, both suffering a head wound that needed stitches.
In the fourth period the game stayed close until Theresa LeCuyer and Niki Avery made it 79-73 with 2 minutes on the clock, drawing loud cheers from the audience. What could go wrong for Eurosped?
Not much, except for Kati Harty going to work. She nailed a 3-pointer from the corner, made a driving lay-up and drained another trey from the top. After making another basket, and setting up Jasmijn Overbeeke for one, she converted two free throws to make it 83-87.
Sunday ProBuild Lions travel east, to the town of Tubbergen near the German border, to meet Eurosped Twente for a first battle in the regular competition.
Since the last meeting in Landsmeer some changes have been made in Eurosped's roster. Puck Oude Avenhuis left to join Jugglers Enschede in the second Division. The injured German guard Janine Schweigler was replaced by guard Niki Avery, who was with the University of East Kentucky before playing professionally in Puorto Ricco and Greece. Avary holds a US passport as well as a Greek one.
ProBuild and Eurosped met twice in the preliminary rounds of the Final Four tournament. Both games turned out in a big win. In Tubbergen the Lions posted a 58-82 victory and in Landsmeer Eurosped was routed 96-62.
This time both teams are without their starting point guards. Both Molly McDowell and Myrthe Beld of Eurosped walk around with casted arms.
The Lions had a light shooting practice at Thursday night to recover from Wednesday's game and a video-session on Friday to prepare for Sunday's game.
Game starts at 4:30 pm CET.
Lions overcome HLB Accountants.
Author: Henk Wals
Video: Johan Kaal
Pictures: Tine Sierink
Datum: January 20, 2009
Within a period of four days the Lions went from a stunning loss to the worst team of the league to a 66-55 win over the reigning Dutch Champions.
They did it without their injured Captain Molly McDowell, who suffered from a broken wrist and is expected to be out for a period of 4-5 weeks.
Kati Harty played for 40 minutes at point guard and finished with 17 points. Marie Hoogstraten posted a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, as did Jasmijn Overbeeke, who had 10 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Coach Laki Lakner credited his team for bouncing back from the unexpected loss they suffered on Saturday. "The ladies showed courage tonight. They fought hard and played well. Kati had to play for 40 minutes at point and that was exhausting. She made a 3-pointer at a crucial moment, lifting us from an 8-point lead to an 11-point lead with 3 minutes to go. I also liked what Marie did tonight. She was very active."
ProBuild trailed until the 2nd minute of fourth period, when Karen Heinen made a lay-up to make it 49-48 before Jasmijn Overbeeke nailed a 3-pointer and converted two free throws to put ProBuild up 54-48.
Belinda Bos made it 59-50 from the charity-stripe and on the next possession Jasmijn Overbeeke kicked it out to Kati Harty, who drained a trey to secure the win with 2 minutes to go, 62-50. Harty returned the favor in the next offense, setting up Overbeeke for a lay-up, 64-50, which marked the Lions' biggest lead in the game.
Wednesday ProBuild hosts national champions HLB Accountants for their first battle in the regular competition.
The Lions and HLB met two times in the Supercup weekend and once in the Final Four Finals. Both times ProBuild prevailed and HLB went home empty handed.
However, as the history of the meetings between HLN and ProBuild shows, victories offer no guarantee for future success. Every game is a battle.
With MVP-centre Marloes Roetgerink back in the line-up and guard Maaike Klein having returned to the city of Den Helder after playing professionally in Israel for half a season, HLB Accountants obviously gained strength since the Final Four tournament.
The last thing one would have expected happened: ProBuild Lions suffered a
87-82 loss to last seeded STOL Grasshoppers, who were winless until now.
Also there was a more serious loss: Molly McDowell broke her wrist after a scrimmage and will be out for at least 6 weeks.
By losing the Lions spoilt a 26-points effort of Kati Harty. Jasmijn Overbeeke added 13 points. With Grasshoppers former Lion Rianne Philippo scored 38 points, including five 3-pointers.
Coach Laki Lakner was more upset by McDowell’s injury than with the loss.
“Something like this can always happen. Like Wednesday, our defense was not good. Today it was even worse. We gave them every opportunity to launch 3-pointers, which we know they’re good at. On the other side, Grasshoppers was very aggressive and physical and the refs let them. But we should have handled that.”
Lakner said Molly McDowell’s injury constitutes a serious problem for the team. “We are vulnerable at the point guard position. We have to rely heavily on Kati, the next six weeks or so. We have no other real point guards who can relief her. But this team knows its responsibility. I am sure other players will step up to help us through the coming weeks. We have some important games coming up.”
Indeed the Lions have. Wednesday they host HLB Accountants and Sunday they visit Eurosped Twente. Without McDowell, ProBuild will have a hard time facing those two teams.
After the first period the Lions led 21-24. Trailing 40-33 with one minute on the clock before the break, the Lions put up a 0-7 run to tie the game, 40-40.
Pushing and shoving aggressively, Grasshoppers took a 55-46 lead in the third period, before Kati Harty , Molly McDowell and Jasmijn Overbeeke made baskets to close the gap to 56-54 after the quarter.
In the fourth minute of the last period Molly McDowell drove the lane and was worked to the ground, with the above mentioned result. To everybody’s amazement it was called a charge by the refs.
ProBuild trailed 68-60, but had a 0-15 run, including 6 points of Kati Harty and 6 of Jasmijn Overbeeke, to make it 68-75.
Usually the Lions don’t waste leads easily at a critical phase in the game, but probably upset by the loss of their Captain, this time they did.
Grasshoppers placed a decisive run, including four hits from behind the arc, to celebrate their first victory of the season.
Saturday the ProBuild Lions travel to the town of Katwijk on the Dutch coast to meet STOL Grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers lost 4-out-of-4 games and is in the last seed of the competition.
ProBuild and Grasshoppers met twice this season. In Katwijk the Lions posted a meager 61-72 victory, but at their home court they blew the Grasshoppers away, 77-50.
Belinda Bos scored 23 of her season-high 25 points in the first half, before leaving the game with a cramped muscle in the third period, and the ProBuild Lions advanced to the semi-finals of the Dutch Cup Tournament beating AutoCAD Amazone 99-83.
Molly McDowell scored 24 points and Kati Harty contributed 18.
Coach Laki Lakner said he thought Belinda Bos was terrific tonight.
“Athletically and technically Belinda is one of the best, she can do anything she wants, as she showed tonight. I only wish she could perform like this on a more constant basis.”
Lakner said he was pleased with the victory, but not quite by the way it was reached. “We seemed to have trouble to get going after the Holiday-break. I particularly do not like the fact we allowed them 83 points. On defense we were a step too late all the time. Luckily we compensated for that offensively. Our shots fell.”
American center Amber Jackson was the one who capitalized on the Lions’
sloppy defense, scoring 34 points for Amazone. Francis Donders had 13 points and former Lion Maaike van den Bovenkamp chipped in with 11.
The Lions had a slow start, trailing 5-12 halfway the first period. After coach Lakner had ordered a zone press, the Lions cut the deficit to 22-23 after the quarter.
Belinda Bos started of the second period scoring 8 consecutive points, including two 3-pointers, to give ProBuild its first lead, 30-25. Ilana Vergunst nailed two treys to stretch the margin to 41-31, but the Lions could not close it out, leading 53-46 at intermission.
In the third period ProBuild took another double-digit lead, 61-50, but Maaike van den Bovenkamp and Amber Jackson made baskets that whittled ProBuild’s lead to 75-67 after the third quarter.
A smothering zone press led to an 11-2 surge, which was capped by Kati Harty making a seemingly impossible basket from right underneath the hoop, 86-69. After this the Lions comfortably cruised to the semi finals.
Wednesday AutoCAD Amazone pays another visit to the Indoor Centre Landsmeer to meet the ProBuild Lions for a battle in the quarter finals of the Dutch Cup Tournament.
This knockout tournament is held throughout the season in four rounds. The winners advance to the next round, the losers are out.
ProBuild and Amazone met each other twice this season. On October 3rd the Lions posted an easy 88-60 win over an injure-hampered AutoCAD in Landsmeer. A month later in the away game they had more trouble pulling out a victory.
Trailing 62-61 with 2 minutes on the clock Jasmijn Overbeeke nailed a 3-pointer and Kati Harty and Molly McDowell both scored to seal a win in the closest game of the season until now.
Saturday ProBuild Lions hosts Wereldtickets Leiderdorp for the First game of the New Decade. It is the first meeting of Leiderdorp and ProBuild since the pre-season, when the teams split a pair of games in the weekend of September 19th.
Last season Leiderdorp was one of the two teams that did not make the play-offs. This season foreign reinforcements were called in, and the prospects look much brighter now. Apart from Americans Bridget Yoerger (South Dakota) and Judy Wright (Lely Amsterdam, AutoCAD Amazone) the Leiderdorp management signed Rita Sardi from Hungary and Julie Kongestov Jensen from Denmark.
In the regular competition Wereldtickets posted a victory over Celertitas Groningen and lost to AutoCAD Amazone.
Kati Harty and Molly McDowell went back to the US for the holidays with a delay of two days due to the snow after the Final Four weekend. They were accompanied by Marie Hoogstraten, who lived in the USA for a couple of years, but never saw a Green Bay Packers game.
All three arrived back on Monday January 4th to report for the first practice of the year.
Braakman Financiële dienstverlening
Ruud en Marjan Nassette
Hans Larooi
Vincent Post
mevr Roele
Inge Schaft
Tine Sierink en
Henk Wals
Hans van Veen
mevr de Vries
Anneke Wals en
Ferdinand v. Veen
