Basketball

​South spoils Lady Tigers’ senior night

Emily Link
Emily Link
Will Willems/For the Journal Review
Posted

LEBANON — Visiting Southmont made their final Sagamore Conference game one to remember on Friday at Lebanon’s Jim Rosenstihl Gymnasium.

The Mounties controlled the middle two quarters to build a double-digit lead and held off the Tigers 45-38.

The big difference came from some adjustments from the Mounties, especially with their defensive effort in the second half.

“We had a guard covering the high post in the first half, and we decided to move them out and let Layla (Gomez) cover the middle and put pressure on their guards,” Southmont head coach Dan Burkman said. “I think that messed up their offense a little bit, they didn’t really react the same way and I felt like that was a turning point.”

Lebanon head coach Aaron Vaughn gave credit to the Southmont defense, but also lamented the missed opportunities his team had.

The Tigers shot 13 of 51 from the field, including 5 of 22 from the 3-point line in the game. It was the fourth time in five games they were kept below 40 points.

“When you aren’t shooting the ball well, it makes it tough to put a lot of pressure defensively,” Vaughn said. “That’s been the MO and kind of the story of us over the last two or three weeks, just not being able to put the ball in the hole and execute. I thought we got some good looks throughout the game, we just didn’t knock them down.”

As the Mounties’ defense got rolling, that led to them being more effective offensively.

After being tied at 6 following the first quarter, Southmont built a 17-11 lead at the half.

In the third quarter, Southmont scored 17 points, matching what they did in the first half.

Vaughn said when the Tigers got down in the third quarter, they had to adjust their defense and that played right into what the Mounties wanted to do.

“We had to go man and get out of our zone and they run a Princeton offense where they can back cut you and put you in some tough positions,” Vaughn said. “It’s tough to prepare for that on short notice and they did a really good job in the third quarter of taking advantage of our perimeter pressure and that took the wind out of our sails a bit.”

Gomez led all scorers with 17 points and Ella Barry added 15 for the victorious Mounties. They carried the Mounties in the first, scoring 15 of the 17 points and kept the pace going as the rest of the teammates got into a groove.

“We made a point of trying to play through Layla a little bit more in the second half,” Burkman said. “Good things happen when she touches it. Ella just has to keep working because she’s always the focal point of the other team’s defense. We are maturing as a team. We are a young team and we matured tonight, kept our composure and executed.”

Ali Bir had nine points of the Tigers, with Claire Boling having seven and Jade Mount six.

After the game the Tigers honored their four seniors — Boling, Marina Barr, Leila Richards and Riley Vanaman.

“They are four remarkable women who are all going to be extremely successful when they leave Lebanon,” Vaughn said. “They have meant a lot to this program and I’ve only had them for a year, but they have accepted me, accepted the younger class and were just welcoming to everyone. I have a lot of respect for those kids being coachable, coming to work every single day and enduring all the change they have had to go through. I am proud of them.”

The Tigers finish the regular season 9-13 and host the sectional next week.

They open up with Brebeuf on Wednesday.

“The silver lining in all this is that next week everyone is 0-0,” Vaughn said. “Our girls are already getting ready for it and they are hungry with their eyes on Brebeuf. It’s a fresh start next week and that has to be your mindset and mental toughness. Some teams will be 20-2 and be eliminated in the first round, and some teams will be 9-13 and make a run. We are focused and this wasn’t the way we wanted tonight to go, but there are still games to play and we have to be ready to get to work.”


X