|
FRANKFORT - First
impressions can often be deceiving.
After Waverly scored 11 of the first 13 points in the game against
Logan Elm, the No. 4 seeded Lady Braves tightened up its defense and
forced 27 turnovers in a 58-41 rout of the fifth-seeded Lady Tigers
Wednesday evening.
“I got a little
hot under the collar when they made their run to start the game, and it
seems like I have to do that in order to get the girls going,” LE coach
Donna Peters said. “We changed the defense we were playing from zone to
player-to-player and told the girls they needed to do a better job on
the boards as well.”
“It seems like
when we play in a zone, the girls slack off a little bit. But after we
went into the player-to-player, our girls did a nice job on defense and
played with intensity.”
With the win to
open up tournament play, Logan Elm (10-11) returns to Adena High School
Saturday to play in the sectional championship against top-seeded Miami
Trace (19-2) at 1 p.m.
A three-pointer
each from Erica Spradlin and Chelsie Osborne helped to stake Waverly to
an early 11-2 lead, but the Braves were able to score the final seven
points in the first quarter, led by senior Lyenya Riddle’s six quarter
points to only trail 11-9 after the first.
Logan Elm forced
five Waverly turnovers during its first quarter run and forced seven
more in the second quarter, holding the Tigers (7-14) to only three made
field goals.
Katie Hupp helped
to power the Logan Elm offensive attack in the second quarter by burying
a pair of jumpers and a three-ball to put the Braves down by two.
“Katie stepped up
and had a real nice game for us,” Peters said. “She was big time for us
in the first half and scored well in the second quarter with 10 points
there.”
“She also stepped
up on the boards and did a nice job there as well.”
A jumper from
Mallory Rittinger tied the game and two free throws from Hupp to close
out first half scoring for Logan Elm gave the Lady Braves its first lead
of the night of 24-22 going into the intermission.
Logan Elm firmly
placed its collective heal on Waverly in the third quarter, outscoring
the Tigers 21-3.
Andrea Anderson
found her stroke from the field in the third ,scoring the first eight
Logan Elm points of the period by burying a pair of three-pointers and
adding a jumper.
“In the first
half I kind of got frustrated with my shot,” Anderson said. “In the
second half I started to look for my shot more and they were able to
fall.”
“Andrea stepped
up in the third and kind of took over the game,” Peters said. “They were
really keying on her in the first half, so we set some screens coming
out in the second half for her and she was able to get some nice shots
and bury them.”
After a duce from
Alicia Nichols, Anderson buried her third trey of the period to finish
with 13 of her game-leading 18 points in the third quarter.
Rittinger added a
jumper during the Logan Elm run while Amanda McDaniel and Hupp each
scored off of easy layups to extend the Braves’ advantage out to 45-25
at the end of three quarters.
Logan Elm
converted 18 of 53 shots for the game (34 percent) while Waverly made 12
for 42 from the field (29 percent).
The Braves were
able to muster 53 shots for the game by controlling the glass for much
of the contests, outrebounding Waverly by a 33-22 count.
Hupp posted a
double-double for the Braves of 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Riddle and
Elliott each added six points in the Logan Elm win.
Natalie Murray
led Waverly with 14 points as she fouled out late in the fourth quarter.
Osborne and McKenzie Gullion each collected five points for the Lady
Tigers.
In the first game
of the double-header Miami Trace crushed league rival McClain 63-28.
Miami Trace won
the South Central Ohio League championship this season and finished the
regular-season ranked third in the Associated Press girls basketball
poll for Division II.
“We’re going to
have to pick up our defense by a lot against them,” Anderson said. “They
were going to press us a lot and we have to stay calm out on the floor.”
“ ... Our goal
coming into the tournament was to get one win and to go from there and
play the best we can. The game Saturday is going to be exciting for us
to play in.”
“This game
against Miami Trace is going to be a tough one,” Peters said. “They
shoot the three pretty well and they have a lot of guns to work with.”
“We just have to
step up and play the best we can.” |
