Shorthanded Tiger Girls Drop 3rd Straight

The shorthanded Worth County girls dropped their third straight running clock game 60-24 at the hands of Maysville. Playing without Claire Andrews and Kristen Andrews for the second straight game, they shut down Maysville's 3-point attack but struggled on the boards against the Wolverines and struggled to break the press. Both the Andrews girls were there for Wednesday's game but did not play; Coach April Healy declined to discuss details. In their absence, the Tigers missed the rebounding and outside shooting of Claire Andrews especially against one of the best rebounding teams in the area in Maysville as well the defensive play of Kristen Andrews. The absence of those two after having lost Gilland for the Princeton game once again altered the chemistry of the team and like Princeton, the Tigers took a whole half to get on the same page as a team and play solid ball. They gave up their 4th highest point total of the year against the Wolverines.

"It took us a whole half to learn what not to do," said Coach April Healy. "The focus of the game was to know what not to do against their diamond press, but we didn't do that." The Tigers had played back to back nights against the 2nd and 3rd best teams in the conference, but she said that was not an excuse. "We have to learn to adjust," she said. "I was proud of the fact that we did not give up after we got way behind, but we have to learn to play for the whole 32 minutes." The game was played after the Tigers' 56-15 loss to South Harrison the night before.

Taylor Zimmerman opened the scoring for Maysville from the left wing with 7:40 and then Torri Blythe followed with a tough shot inside and then scored off a Zimmerman steal. As Worth County was having trouble getting the ball across halfcourt, Kylie Marconnett hit a shot from the right wing to make it 8-0 at the 5:39 mark. It started off similar to the South Harrison game the night before in which the Tigers did not have an answer for the torrid outside shooting of the South Harrison squad.

Jessica Garrett kicked it out to Kiley Reynolds for a 3-pointer as Worth County finally got on the board, but Maysville got five points in the span of 10 seconds as Taylor Hale hit a free throw and missed the second; Blythe stole the outlet for a layup after Worth County got the rebound of the second free throw, and then Zimmerman cleaned up after Blythe stole the ensuing inbounds pass. It was that kind of a night for Worth County in which they had no answer for the relentless pressure of Maysville.

Lauren Null broke the run and got a putback to make it 13-6, but then Hale got loose on the defensive end, slipping in on the weak side for a layup as the next two minutes turned into a layup drill for Maysville. Marconnett scored off a steal and then Hale scored off a Blythe steal and a putback to make it 21-6. Kacey Smyser finally took a charge for Worth County which seemed to slow the bleeding for a while as Maysville only managed a free throw in the last two minutes to go up 22-6.

Kiley Reynolds hit from the left wing with 5:47 to make it 24-8 and keep it at 16 and Worth County got a stop and the ball back, but then a lapse on offense when one Tiger player threw to a teammate with their back turned triggered another layup drill as Blythe picked it off and went in for a layup. Zimmerman got a steal and then got another free throw when nobody guarded her on a free throw situation on the offensive end; Hale scored from inside and Zimmerman scored off a drive to make it 33-8. Rebecca Moore hit two free throws to make it 33-10, but then Zimmerman scored a 3-point play off a steal, Alex Rhoad scored from the wing, and Allie Wingard and Ashley Cole got putbacks to make it 42-10 at the break.

The layup drill continued for two more minutes as Blythe got a putback and went up against two defenders to score and added a steal and Zimmerman added another steal to make it 47-10 before Maysville finally began putting in their JV. Lauren Null stripped a Maysville player and went in for a layup which seemed to snap Worth County out of its offensive funk; Kiley Reynolds hit Liz Novak on the left wing for a 3-pointer and added a shot on the wing; Null scored from the baseline to make it 49-19. But free throws from Brandy Helfrey made it 51-19 after three and Worth County could not kill the running clock. Free throws from Null got her to 9 points on the night; Novak added another 3-pointer for two on the evening, and Katie Mullock got three blocks on the evening, all of them when she leaped out of nowhere from behind for the rejection.