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Tuesday, 19 December 2006 |
By TOM HECKMAN
Staff Writer
BOTKINS — The Botkins Trojans varsity girls basketball team chalked up its second consecutive win Monday night by nipping the Waynesfield-Goshen Tigers in a tight match up.
Senior forward Alisha Grieves led the Trojans to victory with 15 points in the 43-39 victory over the Tigers. Grieves, who has led the Trojans in scoring the past four games, poured in 19 points in a winning effort Saturday night against the Spencerville Bearcats.
“Alisha is pretty consistent in getting double-double scores throughout the year,” said Botkins varsity coach Tom Platfoot, whose team improved to 3-4 on the season. “She helped us on the inside game. As far as rebounds, Alisha Grieves had 10 on the day and Nichele Powell had five.”
Christie Fullenkamp helped the Trojans cause with 12 points, including one of the two 3-pointers Botkins made in the game. Nichele Powell contributed 9 points, and Jessica Luthman scored 7 points.
Tigers varsity coach John Schnieders said rebounding, especially at the defensive end of the court, was key in allow the Trojans to pull out the win.
“The key to the game is that we gave them a lot of extra possessions, a lot of shots at the basket,” said Schnieders, whose Tigers squad dropped to 3-4 on the year. “They hit their offensive boards hard, and we knew that going in — we just didn’t rebound as well in both the zone and man-to-man.
“You give any team extra chances to score and they’re going to score,” he added. “Late in the game, I thought that was a big key, that they were getting possessions on the offensive board.”
The Tigers’ Brittany Lament, a 5-foot-9 junior, led Waynesfield-Goshen in scoring with 15 points, including two 3-pointers. Laina Wireman was the next highest scorer, landing 8 points, followed by Jocelyn Hennon with 7 points and Bree Stauffer with 6 points.
After trailing Botkins early, Waynesfield-Goshen closed the gap to 17-14 at halftime.
“I thought early on we had some chances to put them away,” Platfoot said. “We were up 13-9 after the first quarter, and we had our lead up by seven or eight early in the second quarter. We had the chance to give us a nice, comfortable lead, and that’s something we haven’t had yet this year.”
Platfoot said bad habits plagued his team again and turnovers resulted in the Tigers being able to creep back into the ball game.
“Like we have in the past, we didn’t take care of the ball, and let them right back in the ball game,” Platfoot said. “We were only up 3 points at half, and I came in at half and told the girls that we needed to break down their defense and work on getting the ball inside, where I thought we would really hurt them with Grieves, Powell, and Fullenkamp.”
The Tigers clawed at the Botkins lead, twice hitting 3-pointers in the third quarter to narrow the gap but still trailed 30-27 at the end of the quarter.
“I thought we did OK defensively, we battled back in the third quarter,” Schnieders said. “I was really proud of our kids, they had a little mini-run. (Botkins) got up about an eight or nine point lead in the third quarter and we got right back and actually had the lead for a little while.”
Platfoot credited his team’s intense defense with maintaining the 3-point lead.
“We broke their defense in the third quarter, once again got a lead, but then we let them right back in the ball game,” Platfoot said.
A 3-pointer early in the final quarter gave the Tigers life, but free throws proved to be the difference.
“We had a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, and I thought we’d get on a roll and extend it,” Schnieders said, “but they came back the very next possession. Fullenkamp hit a big three to put them back on top — I thought that was a big play.”
After Fullenkamp’s 3-pointer, a Botkins free throw and basket proved enough to stave off Lament, who scored 8 points in the fourth quarter including a crucial 3-pointer.
“I give Botkins credit. They made a couple of big plays down the stretch, they’re good players,” Schnieders said. “I’m pleased where we’re at, disappointed that we lost, obviously, but we stayed in through the end. They just made more plays than us.”
Waynesfield shot better from the field for the game, hitting 16-of-40, or 40 percent of their shots including 5-of-14, or 36 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The Tigers hit 2-of-4, or 50 percent, at the free throw line.
“We did some things better today,” Schnieders said. “I thought our shooting was much better fundamentally; we made five 3s, and that’s key for us. With our limited depth, we’re going to have to have some girls step up and make some shots. We got some girls to do that a bit, and I thought our shooting was much better.”
Platfoot said the difference was at the line.
“Down the stretch, once again we missed some free throws that could have easily sealed the deal,” Platfoot said, “but, then, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss.”
Botkins will be playing again at Houston to face the Wildcats at 6 p.m. Thursday.
The Tigers will play again at 6 p.m. Thursday, hosting the Marion Catholic Fighting Irish. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 December 2006 )
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