Lady Hounds have Blues at midseason
J. C. Tilton
And the Brookville Blue Devils compounded the Lady Hounds woes. The Hounds have not done well in the win column here in the first part of the season. They won handily against North, but just have not been able to get into that winning groove since. On Tuesday, both teams opened with a press. In the half court, Dixie played a zone and Brookville played some man to man. The teams swapped baskets early on and it looked like the Hounds had some fight in them. Brookville's basket was a 3 pointer, and Dixie's first basket was a 2 pointer - a sign of things to come. Brookville was slow out of the gate, but midway thru the first quarter they hit their stride and lead 20-6 at the end of the first quarter.
Dixie's press was not effective so they called it off and played zone for the remainder of the game.
Still the game was physical, with a lot of contact - both teams were in double bonus late in the 2nd quarter. Halftime saw Brookville with a commanding 36-16 lead. They were effective from behind the arc, but were able to get points inside when they had to. Brookville played an aggressive zone in the second half and mixed in some man to man defense. But Dixie could not put together a second half rally and lost 68-34. Leading the way for Dixe was Dunn with 12 points. Stamper 8, Barnes 5, Salyer 3, Thomas 3, York 1, Milliken 2. The reserves have done well this season, but could not stand up to the withering Blue Devil press. They lost 41-16. Witt 1, Kelhoffer 5, Nelson 2, Brown 4, Diehl 2, Milliken 2.
When asked about the game Coach Meinking had these comments:”Against Brookville I thought we had a better team effort as in the 5 players on the court playing hard together. We just can't get it done. We get open shots in the paint and miss. We get to the foul line and miss our foul shots. We are not finishing the play”.
“I can't complain about the kids giving the effort because overall I think they are playing hard and they are trying really hard. They come back to practice every day and practices are really good. But what we do in practice isn't being carried over into our games.”
Dixie fell short in a valiant effort against the Carlisle Indians. Carlisle's hot shooting in the first half gained them an early lead which they were able to sustain throughout the game. To their credit, Dixie was able to close the gap in the 2nd quarter. Going into the locker room they were down by 5, 29 - 24. But the second half saw Carlisle pull away to win 58-46, the Indians Burgess had a good night, scoring 20 points.
Coach Meinking & “Our problem is we have no inside scoring. Our guards are carrying the load for us and it is easy for teams to defend us. We have to find a way to score.”
“I'm proud of our team for playing hard til the final buzzer went off. I can not fault their effort. The kids that were on the floor played hard until the end. I told them to keep their heads up because I know we have players they are giving it everything they have. Eventually this hard work has got to pay off for us.”
Scoring for the Hounds: Salyer 3, Dunn 11, York 3 Stamper 12, Nelson 3, Barnes 14. Assists & Barnes led the way with 6. Steals & Nelson 4, Barnes 5. Rebounds & tops in this category was Barnes with 5. The JV's won in a close contest: Dixie 19 Carlisle 17, this makes the JV's record 7-3 halfway thru the season.
Dixie is certainly better than their 1-9 record would indicate. Hopefully the team will find a way to put it all together and play the role of a spoiler in the second half of the season. Upcoming games are: Thurs., Jan. 15 vs. Northridge - this will be a test to see if Dixie can turn things around; Thurs., Jan. 22 at Madison - the Mohawks are playing some good ball this winter, can Dixie build some momentum going into this game? Send comments to email: Chris Tilton.
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