Sunday, February 14, 2010

Tiger Girls Crash and Burn at Courtwarming

One of the Greek myths involved a character named Sisyphus, a king who was regarded as one of the craftiest of all men. For thinking that he was more craftier than the gods and thinking of himself as one of their peers, he was condemned to spend eternity pushing a rock up a hill. But just as the rock almost got up to the top, it would come crashing down again and Sisyphus would have to start all over again.

The season of the Worth County girls has been very similar to this figure -- just as they have been about to push the rock over the hump and get their first win of the year, it would come crashing down again. Recent efforts against King City (16 points), North Nodaway (13 points) led to the Albany game, where they were ahead at halftime and within six as late as the fourth quarter. But just as they thought it might all be leading up to their first win against Polo for Courtwarming, the rock came crashing down and the Tigers were handed a 53-15 thrashing against Polo.

Worth County had every reason to expect a competitive game against the Panthers -- North Nodaway had beaten them by 10 in the Albany Tournament, compared to 13 for the Tigers. And Polo came into the game with a 3-13 record, meaning that they were beatable. However, the Tigers were done in by fouls as they would play evenly with the Panthers when their starters were in but give up big runs to the Panthers when their starters were on the bench with foul trouble.

Ashley Reynolds drove down the right side to put the Tigers up 2-0 right off the bat, but then a banked 3-pointer by Alex Templeton that made it 5-2 Polo was an omen that this would just not be Worth County's night. Shortly afterwards, Ashley Reynolds and Jessica Garrett went to the bench with two fouls in a 13-second span and Polo was off to the races in between the constant stream of whistles and fouls on Tiger players. By the 3:53 mark of the first quarter, the Tigers were already up to their 7th foul. The layup drill continued until the end of the first quarter, when Polo took a 13-2 lead into the second quarter.

Worth County was able to stop the run for the first three minutes of the second half as the starters checked back in. But the constant stream of whistles and fouls continued as Brooke Gilland and Jessica Garrett picked up their third fouls in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Ashley Reynolds drove from the half-court line to the rim against the Polo press at the 4:35 mark to make it 15-4, but then picked up her third foul of the game and sat down and the Polo layup drill resumed; this time, they used a 7-0 run to make it 22-4. Worth County finally got into the bonus and got free throws from Lauren Null, Carli Jackson, and Kiley Reynolds late in the first half. But that only slowed the Polo run as the Panthers led 31-7 at the half.

The Tigers showed some life at the start of the second half as Brooke Gilland hit a shot from the right side off a feed from Ashley Reynolds and Jessica Garrett followed with a putback to make it 31-11. But then the steady stream of whistles, fouls, and the parade of Tiger players going to the bench with foul trouble resumed as Jessica Garrett and Ashley Reynolds both picked up their fourth foul each and Brooke Gilland hit her head on the floor and was shaken up. The only other basket that Worth County mustered in the period was a drive and pullup jumper from Lauren Null as Polo led 40-13 after three quarters.

The Panther layup dril continued even during the running clock as Worth County overextended trying to get some kind of run going and left Panther players all alone for layups; the only basket that Worth County managed was Ashley Reynolds scoring off a cut in the period.

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