The Worth County girls have been able to jump out to early leads even against the best teams. But this time, they made one stand up as they played their best game of the year and beat shorthanded Albany 59-34. Albany was playing without their best player, Shelby Fish. Shortly after the game started, Albany went down another player when Sydney Thummel and Sarah Poppa collided on Sydney's drive to the basket and Poppa injured her knee. Albany had every reason to expect a close game, since both teams beat West Nodaway by similar margins. But Albany did not match up well with Worth County's size or their speed.
Worth County was also shorthanded, playing without Coach Bryce Shafar, who sat out both games due to disciplinary reasons. He was suspended by the school administration. He will return for Tuesday's home game against Maysville. Assistant coach Josh Smith managed the teams in his absence.
The Tigers got three players in double figures, led by Claire Andrews (16 points), Kaitlyn Davidson (13), and Sydney Thummel (10). Claire put Worth County in front for good with a transition 3-pointer to make it 6-4 with 6:19; Sydney Thummel followed with a steal off the press and Kaitlyn Davidson stepped through a defender, drew a foul, and hit a free throw to make it 9-4. Quinci Schottel followed with a backdoor layup to make it 11-4 with 3:06 left.
Worth County came out in an early press that bothered Albany and forced a lot of turnovers. But Albany started breaking it and the game turned into a scoring flurry for the rest of the first quarter that saw the Tigers lead 20-11. Kaitlyn Davidson and Claire Andrews had 5 each, Sydney Thummel and Kristen Andrews had 3 each, and Quinci Schottel and Danielle Funk had 2 each for the Tigers, who landed six in the scoring column.
Claire Andrews' 3-pointer with 6:45 left in the second put Worth County up double digits for good at 25-15. Albany's outside shooting kept them in it for much of the period as Kristie Sorensen, Kelsey Sorenson, and Amy Gully all got good looks. But Claire carried the Tigers in the period and refused to let Albany back in the game. She had 11 points in the second quarter, including a pair of free throws that gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the game so far at 38-23. Sydney Thummel had three and Kaitlyn Davidson and Ally Buffington had two each. One backbreaking play that seemed to discourage Albany's outside shooting was when Quinci Schottel stuffed Kristie Sorensen after rotating perfectly on defense; that play led to a fast break for the Tigers and two free throws for Claire Andrews. Quinci had two blocks for the night.
The focus of the third quarter was limiting Albany's outside shooting and the Tigers succeeded in doing that, holding Albany to a 4:15 scoring drought while building up a 50-25 lead at the 4:01 mark. Kaitlyn Davidson had six points for the Tigers, while Kristen Andrews had 5, Sydney Thummel had 4, and Ally Buffington had 2. Ally, a defensive specialist, has been picking up her offense in recent games as she had four in Friday night's game after getting six against Nodaway-Holt. Kaitlyn's putback at the buzzer gave Worth County its biggest lead of the night at 55-26.
Dylanie Abplanalp had hit some free throws before, but she got her first field goal of the season, a shot from the high post off a pass from Schottel. The Tigers were finally at full strength rosterwise as Payton Adwell came back from an illness; she also scored two in the fourth quarter. Worth County played their second best defensive game of the year by allowing Albany only 34 points. In scoring 59 points, Worth County had their best offensive output of the year.
The boys scored their highest point total of the year, putting up 60 points in a 74-60 loss to the defending Class 2 district champions. Unfortunately, they picked a bad night to struggle defensively as they gave up their 4th worst point total of the year; they were giving up too many drives, allowing Albany to run their plays at will, and not guarding shooters. Some of Albany's shooters had no defenders within 5-10 feet of them. They dug themselves into a 35-22 hole at the half and then proceeded to give up 25 points in the third quarter as they trailed by as much as 22 points. The focus of the Tigers will be to put things together on both sides of the floor; against Nodaway-Holt, for instance, they held the Trojans to 55 points only to struggle offensively and get 50.
Truman Moore had a career high as he had 19 points; his rebounding helped keep Worth County in the game after the game threatened to get out of hand. Brevyn Ross followed with 12, Ben Badell 10, and Chris Alarcon 7. Jared Simmons matched a career high with 5. The game was the last for Lane Craven (moving), who had 4. That means that the Tigers are down to two post players with Truman Moore and Josh Warner. That means that depth will be a challenge for the Tigers in upcoming games. There will be no rest for the weary for Worth County's boys. They still have to play ranked teams in Stanberry and East Harrison as well as a rapidly improving South Harrison team that has always had their number.
No comments:
Post a Comment