College of Saint Mary
- Feb 20, 2020
- 5 min read
CSM Flames (5-23, 2-18) vs. Morningside Mustangs (20-8, 14-6, ranked #9)
Wednesday, February 19, 2020 @ 6:00 PM
Omaha, NE
Lied Fitness Center
THE SCHOOL
College of Saint Mary is a Catholic women's college in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1923, CSM has an enrollment of 1,168 students and an endowment of just under $20 million. College of Saint Mary is currently the only four-year single-gender college located between California and the Missouri River.
The Flames compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) in Division II of the NAIA. CSM is the eighth and final NAIA program I've visited this year.
Morningside College is a private Methodist college in Sioux City, Iowa. The Mustangs also compete in the GPAC. Per the CSM Athletics website, the Flames and Mustangs have twelve all-time meetings. CSM is 0-12.
If you read my write-up about Midland University, you may remember that this is not my first encounter with Morningside. Their men's team played against Midland back in December and won in a blowout. The men's team only recently lost their first game of the season, and the Mustang men are currently ranked #2. Additionally, Morningside's football team won their second consecutive NAIA national championship about two months ago.
THE TOWN
CSM's campus is only a fifteen to twenty minute drive from my office. Like UNO, College of Saint Mary is in the Aksarben neighborhood of Omaha. In fact, their campuses are only about a block apart and I drove right past Baxter Arena on my way to the gym. A six o'clock tip gave me enough time to eat a bite near campus and get to the game just a few minutes early. I had an acai bowl for the first time; it was tastier than I assumed but it was not very filling.
College of Saint Mary has a charming, old campus. Most buildings look like they haven't seen many updates in at least thirty years, but that's not always a bad thing. I passed some cozy-looking dorms and apartments on my way to the gym, and my limited time on campus presented a pretty relaxed vibe.
The state of Nebraska has roughly 12 billion buildings named "Lied" (pronounced leed). Lincoln's biggest spot for concerts and plays is the Lied Performing Arts Center. One of the main animal enclosures at the Omaha Zoo is the Lied Jungle. One of Omaha's hospitals is the Lied Transplant Center. Several of the colleges I've visited have Lied buildings, and at CSM, the Lied Fitness Center hosts varsity basketball. Despite the name's constant presence, it required a bit of research to find out who Lied was. Apparently, Ernst Lied was an Omaha-based car dealer who made a fortune developing real estate in Las Vegas. Upon his death in 1980, the Lied Foundation Trust was created, and it has since donated millions of dollars to charitable causes in Nebraska and Nevada.
The Lied Fitness Center is a small but lively gym. The front door opens to a small lobby with big glass doors to your left that look out to the basketball court. The center has old wooden bleachers (that were not made for comfort) on just one sideline and two sizable scoreboards behind each baseline. There's also an upper concourse area that was mostly blocked off, but for some reason contained a couch. The Lied Fitness Center makes no presumptions about itself and it's a good fit for CSM.
THE GAME
When I first came up with this project, I didn't include the College of Saint Mary. I only looked at men's basketball programs and CSM didn't make it onto my master schedule. But I had some free time this week and I felt I should support women's athletics, so I decided to come to what was their final home game of the season. I'm glad I did, especially since it's a short detour on my drive home. They had an attentive crowd of a couple hundred people.
I walked into the gym about twelve minutes before tipoff. I went to pay for my ticket and the printed-out piece of paper displayed on the card table used for ticket sales explained that adult tickets were $8, but the young woman behind the table gave me $14 back on a $20 bill so I guess it was 6. When I pulled out my wallet, the lady asked if I was a student. I get this a lot at games; I easily look like I could be a college student, especially since there aren't a lot of young, non-students by themselves at small college basketball games. But the College of Saint Mary is a women-only institution, so the odds that I'm a student are rather low.
Morningside is a top-ten team while CSM is languishing with a .179 winning percentage. You wouldn't know that by how the game started, however. While the Flames gave up 5 quick points on back-to-back turnovers within the first minute, they fought back to tie the game at 5. With a little under 5 minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Flames hit a 3 to take their first lead, 11-10. The rest of quarter one was a back-and-forth affair until Morningside forced a couple turnovers with a full court press, and the Mustangs led after the first, 20-15. Morningside got off to a torrid start in the second quarter; they led 29-18 at the 7 minute mark and 31-21 with 5 minutes left in the half. But they lost their momentum and played really sloppy offense for the rest of the quarter. This allowed CSM to go on an 11-2 run and end the half only down by 1 point, 33-32. CSM's biggest win of the season was within grasp.
The Flames' dance team performed at halftime. The basketball team did their senior day on Saturday, but the dance team did theirs today. The family of one of the seniors sat directly in front of me. They seemed very happy to be there.
Morningside switched to a 2-3 zone defense in the third quarter, and that pretty much ended it for CSM. While the Mustangs were still a little sloppy on offense, they prevented the Flames from getting any offensive flow. College of Saint Mary finally scored their first points of the half after 6:34 of game time. Unfortunately, Morningside had already scored 13 points by this time, and CSM never got their deficit under double-digits again. Morningside led 53-39 at the end of the third quarter and 79-47 at the final buzzer. The Flames were outscored 46-15 in the second half. Despite the Flames' disappointing finish, #12, Trista Merrival, impressed. She led the team in points (8), rebounds (7), assists (4), and steals (3).
Final: Morningside 79, College of Saint Mary 47
That's 16 down, 1 to go. CSM was the penultimate game of this series, so stay tuned for the final post.
Next up: Chadron State College
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