|
Greyhounds Go Toe to Toe With Bears.
J. C. Tilton
Last week the Lady Greyhounds hosted the Northridge Polar Bears. It was a close game with several lead changes. Neither team was able to gain more than a 4 point thru most of the game. It featured Northridge's tenacious zone against the vigorous man to man defense of the Greyhounds. With the score so close emotions ran high in the 4th quarter where the game stayed close to the last minute.
Dixie did open with a zone, but went to a man to man defense to keep pressure on the outside shooters of Northridge. Kasey Allen and Monica Bryant showed the ability to hit from outside and the Greyhounds had to counter with face to face pressure. In addition, Dixie had a slightly deeper bench and they wanted to keep the Bears working so that they could not relax. Northridge would stay in a zone until the last minute of the game. Dixie lead at the end of the first quarter, but it was Northridge that went to the locker room with a 22-20 lead.
Although Dixie had the lead for a spell in the 3rd quarter, Northridge had a slim one point lead going into the final quarter. Northridge extended their lead to three when Coach Money questioned a foul and a technical was called on the Dixie bench early in the 4th. But the team rallied and from this point Dixie took the drivers seat. The Hounds tied the score at 35 with 4:49 left in the game and went up by two less than a minute later. The Bears were in foul trouble as well. This gave Dixie a double bonus and the players were hitting their shots. Both York and Dunn made some clutch free throws. Dixie had a little foul trouble of their own as Salyer got her 5th foul and was sent to the bench. Now the Bears were down by 4, and later with a little over a minute left they went to an aggressive man to man defense. The change in tactics put Dixie on their heels. And fans from both sides were vocal as the teams fought back and forth on the court. With 35 seconds left, it was a 2 point ball game. York was fouled and sunk a critical free throw to make it a 3 point game. Then Dunn was sent to the line and scored as well. And as the clock wound down to zero, Dixie sat on a comfortable 5 point lead, winning 49-44.
Coach Money had some post game comments, “I thought we played a lot better than Saturday, we hustled and played well on defense, Got some defensive rebounds. I was proud of girls, they knew they had to win this ball game to be 1-1 in the league. We took care of the basketball tonight which is something we have not been the last couple of games”. When asked about the teams 4th quarter foul shooting Coach Money noted, “We practice that a lot, and we put a little extra pressure on the girls ...we try to recreate game situations”. This is one game where the extra work at the foul line payed off.
Scoring for the Greyhounds: Kelhoffer 2, Bargo 8, Salyer 7, Dunn 21, Millikin 3, York 9. The Junior Varsity won their game handily 44-16. Scoring: Witt 12, Gara 3, Williams 5, Barnes 3, Sanders 2, Vandghren 2, Pappas 5, Cummins 8.
Dixie plays at Brookville Dec. 16 and hosts Carlisle Dec. 20. Comments: email: Chris Tilton
| |