The record of futility continued for Worth County's girls as they were ousted from the Albany Tournament for the third straight year. The Tigers have not won a tournament game in three years, routinely being seeded 7th or 8th and then being dispatched in the first round. Following a 78-16 loss to Jefferson in the opening round of the tournament, they dropped their game against Polo 44-27 Wednesday to fall to 0-2 for the year.
Turnovers and rebounding were the reason for Worth County's downfall this time. The Tigers turned the ball over 36 times against the Panthers and gave up 27 offensive boards to the Panthers and lost the rebounding battle 44-32. Somehow, the Tigers managed to make the game a lot more competitive against a squad that they have had trouble matching up against the past two years. Last year, against a team that they thought they had a chance to beat in Courtwarming, Worth County fell victim to a constant round of hacking and fouling as they lost 53-15.
The reason they were not blown out of the gym like that in similar fashion this time was the fact that their freshman class brought something that they were lacking in the previous years -- team speed. That allowed them to push the ball up the floor more than they were able to in years past and actually get some decent looks.
Polo started off by driving the ball at will on Worth County's man to man as Madison Misel scored six points off two layups and a pair of free throws. That forced Worth County out of their man to man, but against the zone, the taller Panthers were able to rebound at will against Worth County and keep the ball on their end of the floor most of the time. Worth County had their usual struggles against the Polo press, struggling to even get the ball across halfcourt at times. It didn't help that Worth County's players would usually hesitate for a whole second after being handed the ball by the officials before working to get open Finally, Brooke Gilland got on the line for Worth County's first point of the game with 45 seconds left. But Polo got a momentum changing play to end the first quarter as they got four offensive boards as Worth County's players failed to box out and connected at the buzzer to make it 8-1. That sequence seemingly convinced the officials to give Polo all the calls in the world for the rest of the half as they would constantly call fouls on Worth County players that they would not call on Polo.
The constant round of drive, shoot, and go to the glass for Polo continued as the lead grew to 12-1. But finally, Coach April Healy began putting in some of her freshmen, who finally started connecting for Worth County as Liz Novak put on a beautiful fake and hit a long jumper with a defender in her face to break the ice. Polo pushed it back out to 15-3, but then Kristen Andrews, the littlest player on the floor, picked up an offensive board and put it back in and then Liz Novak got a steal and fed it to Kacey Smyser in transition to make it 15-7 at the 3:33 mark.
But then a broken play swung the momentum back to Polo as a Tiger defender fell and allowed Courtney Arthur an easy layup to spark an 8-0 run. Jonna Stottlemyre followed with a steal off the press on the ensuing play and Polo ran the lead up to 23-7 at the half.
Another Tiger defender fell on the first play of the second half as Polo started off with a 6-2 run to make it 29-9 with 5:27 left and the Panthers threatened to blow the Tigers out of the gym like they did last year. But then Kiley Reynolds hit a shot from the high post, Lauren Null cleaned up on a fast break miss and then found Kacey Smyser open on another fast break as they finally started to beat the Polo press and get some good looks against it. Liz Novak followed with a steal and drive and all of a sudden, it was 30-17 at the end of three.
Polo scored the first basket of the fourth quarter, but then Worth County put on a press of their own and got a free throw from Jessica Garrett, another free throw from Novak, and a shot from the left wing from Kiley Reynolds off a pass from Novak to make it 32-21. Misel hit two free throws for Polo, but then Kacey Smyser drove right down the middle of the lane to make it 34-23 with 5:03 left.
But then Polo began solving the Tiger press and Brooke Gilland picked up her fifth foul, which seemed to sap the momentum. With Worth County's best defender out of the game, Bailey Prichard began posting up at will inside and Polo scored the next nine points to make it 43-23 with 1:23 left. But Worth County kept right on playing until the end as Liz Novak pushed one up the floor and blew past four defenders before finding Claire Andrews wide open for a layup and then Novak found Claire open again after getting a steal in the closing seconds. "One of the most common things that coaches told me after the game was that our players played hard right 'till the end," said Coach April Healy in summing up the season last year. That observation was certainly true Wednesday night.
"If we could have played the first half like we did the second half, it might have been a different story," said Healy, saying that her team had to be willing to work and find individual time to shoot. "Practices are for team time to get better as a team, but the players need to be able to find time on their own to shoot," she explained, pointing to her team's 12 for 49 shooting percentage. She said that rebounding would be important for her team, saying that her team was small this year and that rebounding would be very important this year. Consequently, "Box out!" was one of the most common refrains of new assistant Susie Smith. "Our turnovers were better than against Jefferson, but we still had far too many," said Healy. She said that the play of Liz Novak on offense and Kristen Andrews on defense helped a lot.
Kacey Smyser led the Tigers with 8 boards, followed by Brooke Gilland with 6 and Lauren Null with 5. "I'm counting on Lauren and Brooke to provide leadership to this team and our freshmen to provide some team speed," said Healy. Null and Novak each had three steals and Novak had three assists.
No comments:
Post a Comment