Shorthanded Tiger Girls Fall 49-18 to Princeton

Just when it seemed like the Worth County girls were turning the corner with their Courtwarming win over Albany, they lost one of their main players and had to start over again. Brooke Gilland did not play because of the death of her grandfather, leaving the Tigers without one of their main defensive stoppers. That changed the chemistry of the team and it took them a whole half to figure out how to play together again. They played strongly in the third quarter but then could not buy a bucket in the fourth as they were held scoreless in that frame. The absence of Gilland affected the offensive end as well; Worth County, whose shooting had gotten up into the high 20's recently, fell to 14% even though Coach April Healy estimated that around 80% of their shots were in the paint.

There were good individual performances for the girls Friday night. Lauren Null did all she could to help the team as she collected a double double with 10 points and 10 boards playing in the post position a lot because of foul trouble to Jessica Garrett and Kacey Smyser, who both fouled out in the fourth. Liz Novak and Kristen Andrews did their best to fill the void created by the absence of Gilland as they got a lot of tips and steals. Novak showed some point guard skills as she found Lauren in the post a lot and got four assists on the night. But as a team, Coach Healy said that the intensity was not there. "We gave up 33 points in the first half and 16 points in the second half," said Healy. "Our focus for the game was to pick up the intensity, but they were ahead of us every step of the way in the first half."

Too much hacking and fouling was a problem for Worth County as Princeton went to the line 29 times to 12 for Worth County. Princeton lost their best player, Cassie Teeter, to an injury after the first quarter and she sat out the rest of the game. However, Princeton handled that situation much better than Worth County did as they didn't skip a beat in the second quarter as they built up their lead.

Lauren Null hit a pair of free throws off a Novak steal to cut Princeton's lead to 4-2 in the early going, but then Princeton used a fast break off the press, a pair of steals, and a shot from the left wing to make it 12-2 with 2:37 left. Worth County was forcing too many passes on offense and there was not enough spacing at times. Lauren Null hit Kacey Smyser inside, but then Alison Faulkner hit a shot from the right wing and then Teeter hit a heavily guarded 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it 17-4.

Teeter came out with her injury shortly after, but Worth County didn't have an answer for Princeton's offense and lost track of Bailey Prichard on defense; Prichard scored seven consecutive points for Princeton. Coach April Healy was trying one defense after another and going down the bench to try and find some combination that would break the Princeton run to no avail. The hacking and fouling on defense led to a ton of Princeton free throws as the lead grew to 31-4 before Lauren Null found Rebecca Moore on a fast break and Moore drove into the lane and hit a free throw for Worth County to break the run. Null and Moore had to play out of position at the post thanks to Worth County's foul trouble. Null posted up and scored off a pass from Novak to make it 33-7 at the break.

The Tigers continued to struggle at the start of the third quarter as Princeton was rebounding at will and both Smyser and Garrett picked up their fourth fouls. But then Princeton began missing shots and Worth County finally got going offensively, starting with a high-low from Liz Novak to Lauren Null. Liz pushed it up the floor following another Princeton miss and got it to Lauren; then, Katie Mullock got a steal off the press and threw it to Liz to make it 37-13 with 3:06. Novak then hustled after a missed carom and deflected it to Null for her sixth point of the quarter and added a jumper from the right side. Kristen Andrews ended the scoring with a free throw off an offensive board that made it 39-18 after three.

Worth County faced a similar deficit against Nodaway-Holt after three quarters and made a game of it; however, although they continued to play with the intensity on defense that Coach Healy had been looking for and got a lot of tips and steals, they went cold from the field as Princeton broke a six-minute scoreless slump at the 4:10 mark and ended the game on a 10-0 run to account for the final score.