The Park University Gilbert women's basketball team came out and looked like they were still on holiday vacation for about three and a half quarters before righting the ship behind 24 fourth quarter points and walked away with a 64-60 win over Spring Arbor University at The PHHacility in Phoenix, Ariz.

"We didn't have the effort on the defensive end we needed in the first half," said Buccaneers Head Coach Jeff Fore. "But we got after it in the second half and turned things around."

The Buccaneers were only playing with eight players for the third time this season, injuries have hit the Bucs hard this year, but the Bucs would have to also play this game without point guard Jayla Reliford who had three flights cancelled as she attempted to return to Arizona from her home in Minnesota for the Holiday break.   

Both teams got off to a sluggish start as the Bucs only held a 13-10 advantage after the first quarter.  The Bucs held the Cougars to 28 percent shooting from the floor in the first half.  Kayla Schroeder scored five points in the quarter as Park shot 40 percent from the floor.

The second quarter is where things started to get away from the Buccaneers. The Bucs only shot 25 percent from the floor as they only scored 10 points in the frame. Meanwhile the Cougars shot 45 percent, scoring 22 points and took a nine-point advantage into the locker room at halftime.

The first part of the third quarter seemed to be a continuation of the first half as the Bucs struggled from the floor and the Cougars kept adding to their lead.  With 4:14 remaining in the stanza, the Bucs trailed by 15; its largest deficit of the game and they had only scored five points in the second half to this point. At this point things looked bleak and one could wonder if the deficit was too much for a team with only eight players available to them.

Lost in the shuffle of all of the injuries in the first half of the year was the absence of freshman center Valerie Van Dijk who was making her Park debut after transferring from Ottawa University Arizona and sitting out the first 12 games. She made her presence felt down the stretch, scoring 10 of her team high 16 points over the last 12 minutes of the game.

"Val can be a difference maker for us," said Fore. "She can score in a variety of ways and she showed only a small sample of what she is capable of doing for us. When she gets her legs under her, I am excited to see what she can do."

The Bucs went on a 14-0 run to end the third quarter and to start the fourth quarter to take a 44-43 lead.  The two teams then exchanged the lead six times until the Park took the lead for good via a Macy Markus field goal 52-50.  Another Markus score was followed by a Van Dijk lay in and another Markus jumper.  The Bucs were up 58-52. After a SAU layup cut the lead to four, Schroeder scored her first points since the first quarter as she logged a full 40 minutes on the floor for the Bucs.  With a six-point advantage and under a minute to play, the Cougars needed to foul to send the Buccaneers to the line.  There was one problem, SAU had not committed a foul in the fourth quarter.  So the Cougars spent the next 21 seconds of the game (from 0:39 to 0:18) fouling to put the Bucs in the bonus.  But after they did, both Van Dijk and Maddison Chappell drained both their free throws to seal the win. The Cougars made a three-pointer as time expired to cut the lead to its final four-point margin.  But the Buccaneers can wipe their brow with a sigh of relief as they get their eight win of the season.

The Bucs shot 58 percent from the floor in the final frame and were perfect on thier free throws in clutch time with under four minutes in the game.

Van Dijk led the way with 16 points in her debut off the bench and she also corralled six boards. Markus who also scored 10 points after the Bucs were down 15, scored 15 points with four assists and two steals.   Haley Valencia posted her second career double-double, scoring 12 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.  Chappell kicked in eight points off the bench with five rebounds, two steals and sticky defense on Cougar point guard Cierra Lips which was another catalyst for the comeback. 

The Bucs need to rest up quickly as they turn right back around tomorrow afternoon to take on Trinity International at 1:30 p.m. at the Facility.  The Trojans are coming in off of a loss at Arizona Christian on Tuesday.