sports@southwesttimes.com
DUBLIN – Coming off of a tough one point loss to Hidden Valley on Saturday, the Lady Cougars ran into yet another road River Ridge District road block on Wednesday, falling to the Blacksburg Bruins at home, 50-45.
“Tonight, our players played hard and played with a lot of passion,” said Lady Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “We just came up short. We didn’t pressure their perimeter players enough and we didn’t rebound inside. We were out rebounded by Blacksburg, 32-19. We gave them ten offensive rebounds, which a lot of times led to a score. We just have to hit the boards harder.”
From the opening tip, the two teams would match nearly every point the other would score. The largest lead of the first quarter was just three points by Blacksburg (7-6, 2-2). The game would be tied after the first quarter, 14-14.
Pulaski (7-9, 2-2) would gain some early separation in the beginning stages of the second quarter, as Daisy Ball got a fade away jump shot and Elizabeth Thacker added a jumper of her own. The Cougars would hold the lead the majority of the quarter until Blacksburg’s Laura Priest made a jumper and Lacey McMahan drove the entire length of the court for a lay up, giving the Bruins a 23-22 lead.
It looked as if the Bruins would hold the advantage at halftime, as Kathryn Kipps hit two free throws, but Kasey Holcomb would change that. The junior would connect on a long three point attempt just seconds before the buzzer sounded, giving Pulaski the 26-25 halftime lead.
Blacksburg would get off to a great start following the halftime break. Their performance in the quarter would include two opportunities at a three point play. Both McMahan and Kipps connected on lay ups, would be fouled, and made their free throw attempts.
Just as impressive as their offensive performance was their defensive outing in the quarter. They held the Lady Cougars in check with their zone defense, limiting them to just nine points in the quarter. Blacksburg would take a 43-35 lead after the third quarter.
“Attacking the zone was difficult for us because we haven’t been real successful on the perimeter as a team,” Grubb said. “Kasey has been shooting the ball pretty good from the perimeter. She has a better than 30% average, but as a team we are really low as far as three point percentage. We always do a good job of attacking the paint. The packed in and kept us from getting into the paint. When we did get in, we weren’t real effective with it.”
Pulaski’s Raiven Patterson and Sydney Anderson would score two early lay ups in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit in half from eight to four points. However, the Cougar foul trouble was building, as Brittany Lawson, Daisy Ball, and Raiven Patterson all picked up their fourth fouls. Ball would pick up her fifth foul just moments later, disqualifying her from the game.
“I think the foul trouble definitely came from being out of position defensively,” Grubb said. “When on defense, you have to be constantly moving and repositioning yourself according to where the ball is and where your player is. We didn’t do that good enough. When they attacked the basket, we were out of position and got foul calls. Of course, we found ourselves in foul trouble again and trying to sub players in. We had some players foul out. It was hard to manage at the end of the game. It definitely didn’t turn out the way we had wanted it and the way we had planned it.”
The foul situation not only limited the Cougars offensively, but it helped Blacksburg build a lead. The Bruins went to the foul line a total of 25 times in the game and connected on 16 of those, while Pulaski was only 5-for-11 on their free throw attempts.
To make matters worse for Pulaski, the Bruins were also holding the ball and continued to run precious time, as the Cougars scrambled for opportunities to score and catch up. After a Blacksburg drive failed, Raiven Patterson would score a late lay up and the lead was down to just four, 49-45.
Pulaski knew they had to foul in order to stay in the game, so they would send the Bruins to the foul line twice and hope for misses. It would work, as the Bruins only made one free throw on four attempts. However, Pulaski would lose Holcomb to foul trouble.
The Lady Cougars would have a couple of chances at the end to score, but the Blacksburg zone defense continued to create offensive issues. The Bruins picked up the tough victory.
Raiven Patterson led Pulaski with 15 points. Daisy Ball scored 10 points, Kasey Holcomb had nine points, and Sydney Anderson added seven points.
The Lady Cougars now have the tough task of facing the Salem Spartans on the road Friday. The Spartans have lost two of their last three contests, including a tough 39-38 loss to Hidden Valley on Wednesday.
“Salem is a great team and they’ve had a great year,” Grubb said. “I think that our team is still confident. I think that if we take a look at this film and fix our mistakes, then we’ll be ok. If we don’t fix our mistakes, then we won’t fare too well against Salem or other teams in the district. It’s all about getting better. That’s something we did early on in the season. We made great strides and improved. During the seven game win streak, we didn’t play a whole lot of competition. Some of the teams were really weak. We got away from some of the things we did right and picked up some bad habits. It’s going to take some time to get back to where we were. I think our players have their eyes on the prize and down the road, they are going to have the opportunity to do well and show they can compete. The first time is Friday.”
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