By Cody Dalton
sports@southwesttimes.com
SALEM – With both teams coming into the game holding two game losing streaks, something had to give on Friday when Pulaski met Salem in girl’s basketball. Unfortunately for the Cougars, things would go the Spartans way as they held off a late Pulaski charge for a 59-50 win in Salem.
The game started out rough for Pulaski (7-10, 2-3), as post player Daisy Ball would pick up two quick fouls within the first 1:30 of the contest. That hurt the Cougars both offensively and on the rebounding effort.
Salem (14-2, 4-1), who is ranked No. 6 in Group AA by the Associated Press, would come out of the quarter with a small 11-6 lead, as six Spartans would score in the session.
Salem would blow open the game in the second quarter, as both poor shooting and ball control issues hindered Pulaski. The Lady Cougars would shoot just 23% from the field in the first half and committed 18 turnovers. The halftime margin was 18 points, 29-11, in favor of Salem.
“In the first half, we made too many mistakes,” said Cougars coach Jason Grubb. “At halftime, we had 18 turnovers and we missed 11 free throws. We were 3-for-14 at the free throw line. If you have 18 turnovers and miss 11 free throws in the first half, you can’t really expect to be in the lead or expect to be close, especially to a team like Salem, who is a veteran group, experienced team, and a very talented team.”
The Lady Cougars would rally despite being down by a large margin. Both teams played evenly in the second quarter and traded basket for basket early on. The Spartans built on their lead, 40-19, towards the middle of the quarter, but that marked a turning point for the Pulaski offense.
The team would score six straight points. Daisy Ball would convert on a three point play, Sydney Anderson scored a lay up, and Kasey Holcomb hit one of two free throw attempts due to a technical foul on Salem’s Kerri Belcher. It would be Belcher’s fourth and that foul would also prove to be advantageous for Pulaski later on.
After another lay up by Salem, Daisy Ball would score five straight points. Before the quarter was over, the nearly insurmountable Salem lead was down to a manageable 14 points.
“We knew that she was going to provide them with a match up problem,” Grubb said. “She got two early fouls and we sat her most of the first half. She picked up a third, so we sat her a while in the second half and picked up a fourth and sat her for a while. They couldn’t match up with her. She scored 12 points and she only played about half the game. If we could have kept her out there more, she could have been much bigger for us. A couple of those calls are tough on her. She is trying to alter shots and block shots in the post. I think if we could have had her out there more, it would have helped us out there more. She played a really good game and played hard. She really wanted to win and hustled really hard.”
Belcher would score an early basket for Salem, but would pick up her fifth foul on a charge call during the next Salem drive. That helped to swing valuable momentum in favor of Pulaski.
Salem would continue to score and match the Cougar’s point for point. A 14 point lead would dwindle down thanks to tremendous performances from Daisy Ball and Raiven Patterson. The duo would score eight combined points in the final minutes of the game.
After Patterson rebounded her own miss and scored a lay up late, the Salem lead was down to just five points. However, Salem would continue to hold the ball, run clock, and made their free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Salem finished the game making 15 of 21 free throw attempts. Foul shooting plagued the Cougars in the game, as they only went 14-for-31 at the line. Pulaski did improve on their field goal shooting in the second half, finishing 40% from the field after starting out 23% on the first half.
“In the second half, we made much fewer turnovers,” Grubb said. “We shot a much higher percentage and we got the ball to the players that we wanted to get the ball to. We made that extra pass and made better decisions on offense. We made some free throws as well, even though free throw shooting wasn’t where it needed to be, but we shot better in the second half. We ended up missing 17 free throws all night long. It’s frustrating because we cut it to five with about a minute to play. If you make a few more free throws, then you have the lead there and we wouldn’t have to foul to put them on the free throw line.”
Patterson finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Ball added 12 points and Sydney Anderson had eight points and five rebounds.
Next up for Pulaski is yet another River Ridge District road game, as they travel to Christiansburg to face the Blue Demons for the second time this season. The Cougars were impressive over Christiansburg the first time they met, 80-32.
“We had a pretty easy game against them at home last time,” Grubb said. “We’ve got to go to their place. We want to get district wins because those are the most important games. We’ve dropped three in a row, so it would be nice to get focused and get back on the winning side of things. I think that we’ve learned from our mistakes in the past three games and been close in some games. We’ve proven we have the ability to beat any team in the district. We just have to play a complete game. We played great in spurts against Hidden Valley, we played great at times against Blacksburg, and great at times against Salem. If we put a whole game together, there is no way that those teams can beat us. We know what to expect and we know how to get there. We just have to execute.”
NOTES FROM THE HARDWOOD:
Pulaski forward Shaniqua Banks is out for the season after tearing her ACL in a Jan. 6 win at Cave Spring. She will undergo surgery in two weeks to repair the ligament.
Five middle school basketball players – Carli Clary, Gracie White, and Meagan Memitt from Dublin Middle School and Shuby Shumate and Tyra Redd from Pulaski Middle School – were added to the Lady Cougar JV squad.
No comments:
Post a Comment