Worth County's girls showed what they are capable of despite Tuesday night's 53-47 loss to North Andrew. The scary thing about that game is that this is a team that does not yet know its own strength. Getting better will involve things that are totally under their control -- making their free throws, converting more of their close shots, doing a better job of matching up on defense when they are playing man to man, and knowing who the other team's best players are and how they hurt you.
The Tigers would go through stretches where they completely outplayed North Andrew, who has been tabbed by many observers to go all the way to state, especially after their 30-point drubbing of Jefferson. But there were others where they looked overmatched. The goal will be to get more consistent over the next two games and get back to .500 going into the beginning of next year. The key will be how they handle this loss. If they are too satisfied with losing to a good team by six points and playing close, then one loss can easily snowball into a long losing streak. The zero in the won-loss column still looks the same whether you lose by one or 30. But if they build on their successes and learn from their mistakes, then they can do a lot of damage come districts.
Worth County fell behind 8-0 right off the bat as they struggled against the Cardinal press. They were not finding the open person against the press.And when they did get it across halfcourt, they would not get in their offense. But a four-point play at the 2:15 mark when Kacey Smyser got a putback and drew a foul and Haven Schottel got another putback seemed to wake them up and draw them to within 12-7. Rebecca Moore took a charge on defense during that stretch.
North Andrew's game plan was simple -- get the ball into Danielle Chambers and let her score at will in the post. But Worth County was not recognizing that and stopping it in the second quarter, allowing the Cardinals to score inside at will. Coaches teach their players to help out on defense, which Worth County was doing well at times. But sometimes, when they help out, teams forget that they still have to protect against offensive players leaking into the backside and Worth County gave up some easy backside looks during that stretch as well. Consequently, North Andrew built up their lead to as much as 17.
But on the positive side, Worth County was doing a much better job of breaking the press, finding the open people and making some pinpoint passes. Claire Andrews got behind the defense for six points in the period, all from running the floor and being in the right place at the right time; Worth County was therefore able to stop the bleeding at that point. Kaitlyn Davidson got loose a couple of times late as Worth County was able to trim North Andrew's lead back to 33-21 at the break.
Worth County was getting sealed too much early in the third quarter, allowing North Andrew to built their lead back up. The goal of post defense is to front the post player, forcing the offense to lob the ball. The object is then to get a steal and a transition look the other way. But Worth County was allowing North Andrew to seal at will, allowing them to grow their lead back up to 16 at 40-24.
Most teams always have one or two players that they need on the floor as much as possible to be effective. It doesn't always have to be their leading scorer; it can sometimes be a role player. For North Andrew, that player was Shaina Pittman; she was getting a lot of steals on defense and getting the ball into the post a lot on offense. But she was in foul trouble in Tuesday night's game. North Andrew was much more effective with her on the floor than they were with her on the bench. When she picked up her fourth foul, Worth County once again came back as Kacey Smyser scored off an inside shot, Haven Schottel hit a 3-pointer, and Haven scored off a steal to make it 40-29 after three quarters.
But then Worth County failed to match up several times on defense, allowing North Andrew to build up their biggest lead of the night at 53-35. Worth County put in a full court man to man press for this game and the players were still getting used to playing it as there were several Cardinal players who were unguarded and who were able to get loose for easy looks. But with their backs to the ball in the last 3-4 minutes, all of a sudden Worth County put on a frantic rally and scored the last 12 points of the game. Sidney Thummel got loose inside for a bucket, Claire Andrews scored inside once and got a putback, Rebecca Moore slipped into the paint for a bucket, and Haven Schottel and Kristen Andrews scored off steals before Worth County ran out of time at the end.
The telling stat was at the free throw line -- Worth County was 16 for 37 from the line. Make a few more of those and Worth County wins the game.
Claire Andrews led the scoring with 12 for Worth County, followed by Haven Schottel with 10. One positive for the night is the fact that Worth County can always put five people on the court who are capable of scoring, meaning that defenses can't just focus on one or two players. Two different people led the scoring in the West Nodaway game. Sidney Thummel followed with 8, Kacey Smyser had 7, Kaitlyn Davidson had 5, Kristen Andrews had 3, and Rebecca Moore had 2.
The JV fell to North Andrew 22-9. Sidney Thummel had 5 and Dylanie Abplanalp had 4 for the Tigers. The JV won Monday night's encounter with South Harrison 34-24. Sidney Thummel led the scoring with 12, followed by Kaitlyn Davidson with 8. Dylanie Abplanalp, Claire Andrews, and Kristen Andrews all had 4. Tess Andrews had 2.
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