Thursday, July 16, 2009

Stingy Tigers Split in Fairfax.

Worth County's girls had been thrashed twice in consecutive outings against Northeast Nodaway. But in their second encounter with the Bluejays in Summer Jam action, they were within a point of them with five minutes left in the first half before Northeast went on a 19-1 run to put the game away. Last Thursday, July 9th, Worth County showed that they had learned from playing one of the best teams in the area in consecutive weeks and showed that their ability to hang with Northeast for nearly a half of play was no accident as they beat CFX 15-12. The Bulldogs were hardly an easy opponent as they would go on to lose to Northeast by only eight and hang with highly-touted Sacred Heart of Falls City, NE for a whole half before going down in the second.

The Tigers sat back in mostly a 2-3 zone throughout the first half and jumped and denied everything. CFX resorted to throwing up 3-pointers the whole half, without success. The only points during the whole half in the hot, sweltering gym were a pair of shots from the Bulldogs' Kelsey Sly, a backdoor layup from Jessica Garrett, and an inside shot from Ashley Reynolds off a drive from Lauren Null. The Tigers kept hanging around and hanging around the Bulldogs and finally took over the game in the second half, although the score was always close.

Kiley Reynolds opened the scoring for Worth County with a steal. Fairfax moved back in front 7-6, but a free throw from Reynolds and a putback from Delaney Davidson put Worth County back in front at 9-7. CFX tied the score at 9 on a transition shot after a block, but Reynolds' shot from the high post and a putback from her put Worth County in front to stay at 13-9 at the 6:14 mark.

CFX moved closer with a free throw but then saw a pair of 3-pointers go in and out. Sly stole the ball and drew a foul with 26 seconds left and hit the free throws to make it 13-12. CFX then forced a tieup and got the ball back, but a shot from the baseline missed and Delaney Davidson got the rebound. As CFX was trying to pressure the inbounds play and steal the ball for a layup, Ashley Reynolds beat the defense down the floor for a layup at the buzzer.

Worth County hung with Sacred Heart for the first ten minutes of the game before falling to the Irish 43-9. Ashley Reynolds scored from the baseline with 14:29 left to open the scoring, but the Tigers then struggled against the press as they went down 10-2. They then made a mild rally as a fast break from Rebecca Moore against the press and a banked 3-pointer from Reynolds cut Sacred Heart's lead to 11-7. But the Irish would then go on to score the next 28 points on an array of steals and fast breaks before Moore's inside shot with a defender in her face broke the run late in the game.

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