North Scraps to the End.
J. C. Tilton
You know that you are in for a long night when your tallest player is shorter than the opposing team's smallest starter. That was the situation for Tri County North as they took the court against the Anna Rockets. In addition, the Anna Rockets had Ohio State signee, Sarah Schulze on the roster. As I watched her shoot thru out the night, I don't know that she hit the rim once - her shots seems to hit nothing but net as she dropped shots from both short and long range. As evidence of the respect that the other teams in the bracket had for Anna, the number one and two seeds both avoided their section and elected to play elsewhere to avoid them.
The Panthers looked intimidated in the first half, they were down 43-10 at the end of the second quarter. Coach Stammen gave the team a talking to at half time and the team did perform better after the break. Heindl and Green both scored 4 points in the third quarter, while Daugherty chipped in a trey. Thompson took over in the 4th quarter, scoring 5 points to lead the Panthers in the final stanza. Although the Panthers slowed down the pace of Anna's scoring they would finally fall 73-35. An overmatched young Panther team was scrappy to the end however. Their regular season record was 4-16.
“They had respect for the school district, the fans, and parents that showed up here. Nobody came here to watch us give up in the first quarter,” stated coach Molly Stammen, “When they went on the court it was like a deer in the headlights. After we got over the shock in the first half, we stepped it up in the second half.”
Summing up this season, “ We hit a slump and couldn't get anything going. In the past the girls here have just given up, but this team just wanted to keep getting better. And we got some wins in the last part of the season. They wanted to prove people wrong. They have good attitudes, they go with it, they really try and continue to make progress. They're small and they really have to work harder. The past few seasons we have been next to or at the bottom, I'm glad we did better than that.”
Looking forward to next year, “We are losing a couple of seniors, but I think we have a lot to look forward to for the next couple of years here. Some of them are so young and I don't think they know what their potential really is. We will be playing summer ball and that will really help.” Comments email: Chris Tilton
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