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Panthers over Eagles
J. C. Tilton
On Saturday the Lady Panthers of TVS played at the Eaton Eagles. Eaton has been struggling this season, but are still full of fight. South is having one of their better seasons in several years. Right away it was apparent that South's plan was to get the ball inside of Eaton's 2-3 zone in the hands of Jennifer Davis. South pressed some early but pulled back into a man to man late in the first quarter. In the early going, South was successful and had an 8 point advantage. They changed to a trapping 1/2 court defense that was successful at times, but did give Eaton some easy baskets when they found the open person. At the half, TVS was up 28-22, they could not get Eaton off their tails.
In the second half, South's defense turned it up a notch. Almost all of Eaton's shots came from outside the paint, and they just couldn't get those to drop. On the other hand, South gained the momentum and started scoring points. Outpacing Eaton 14-7 in this quarter to open a commanding 15 point lead. Then South relaxed and the offense took a vacation. In the 4th quarter the team tossed up brick after brick. There was a 6 - 7 minute stretch where South did not score a point. And the Eagles kept chipping away at the Panther lead. With less than a minute left the Eaton Eagles were 2 scores away from tieing or winning. But Eaton had to resort to fouling as TVS tried to run out the clock. South managed to hit only one of their foul shots, but that was more than enough. TVS managed to hang on and walk away humbled with a 47-41 victory. As a team, TVS was a disappointing 9 of 22 from the charity stripe.
"I'm just glad we won, said Coach Robinson, "The defense responded in the third quarter. I talked to them at half time and the team turned the intensity up. But our offense was cold in the fourth quarter, there was a slow down at the end. It was an ugly win - it has been 9 days since we played, maybe that had something to do with it." Robinson complimented the Eagles, "Eaton struggled, but they battled to the end." Scoring for the Panthers was lead by a game high 15 points from Jennifer Davis, Moore 14, McMurray 4, Maleski 4, Durkle 3, Lipps 3, Reed 2, Brubaker 2. The JV's lost a close game. The team pressed the entire game, but had some critical breakdowns in the 4th quarter that allowed Eaton to comeback and win by point 37-36. Scoring for South: Somers 12, Krickenbarger 8, Bambeck 4, Colby 4.
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