Lady Rebels fall by 24 to Crothersville
By George Browning, Sports Writer, [email protected]
After battling back to a five-point deficit at halftime, 24-19, the wheels came off for the South Central Lady Rebels in Thursday’s Southern Athletic Conference game against visiting Crothersville.
The Lady Tigers used a 32-11 run in the third quarter to take control of the game and cruise to a 72-48 win.
Lynne Thomas, coach of the Lady Rebels, admits her team lacks experience, but she said they just simply didn’t show up mentally for the game.
“I am going to be real honest,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t what (Crothersville) did; it was what we didn’t do in the game. We weren’t ready. We didn’t take care of the ball. We didn’t take opportunities that we were given. Instead of driving the ball, we wanted to shoot threes and, unfortunately, we let it slip away.”
South Central fell behind by 10 late in the second quarter, but a two-point basket and one of two free throws by Lily Boley pulled her team to within seven, 24-17, and a two-pointer by Makaylie Patterson set up the half-time margin.
The Lady Rebels got even closer at the start of the third quarter when a basket by Marie Goodwin, off an assist by Boley, cut the deficit to three, 24-21.
The run ended when Addy Cole scored on consecutive possessions, and Makayla Helt scored a quick four points to extend the Lady Tigers’ lead back to 10, 31-21.
South Central’s Kaitlyn Harl got two points to stop the run, but it was only temporary as Crothersville reeled off 11 more points and took complete control of the game. When the third quarter ended, the Lady Tigers had turned a five-point advantage at halftime into a 26-point lead, 56-30.
During the Crothersville spurt, Cole scored 17 of her game-high 21 points, most of which came from point-blank range.
Thomas said her young team is still learning how to defend opposing teams’ inside players.
“Post-play has been a plague for us as far as defense,” Thomas said. “In our game against Providence, their post player had 31 points on us. We have talked about positioning and where to be. I am working with some girls who lack game experience, so the short turnaround from Tuesday to Thursday made it hard for us to implement anything new.”
A three-point basket by Kennadi Lakins early in the fourth grew Crothersville’s lead to 31 before South Central started to show a little life. Boley scored a basket and made two of two free throws, and Annabelle Faith hit two freebies that cut the margin to 25 with 3:46 remaining in the game.
South Central scored four more points, two off free throws by Kendall Kiper and Patterson stole the ball and hit a layup. Kiper and Boley combined to score four more points for the game’s final margin.
The Lady Rebels entered the game with an 0-7 record, and the Lady Tigers were 4-4. Even though Crothersville had a 0.500 record, Thomas admits she thought her team would turn in a more competitive performance.
“I am a little surprised they were able to win like they did,” she said. “We look at all of our home games as hopeful wins, but our shooting was off and we turned the ball over 21 times, and the combination of those two makes winning difficult.”
A win for South Central was the goal, but Thomas said there were other things she thinks her team did well.
“I love these girls; they are working hard for me and they are trucking along for me, but we just need more experience in the games,” she said. “We had some sets that we were able to run and got some good baskets off of those. For the most part, when we ran our press break we ran it well. The difficulty was getting in position and getting the ball where we wanted it to go.”
South Central was back in action last night (Tuesday) at home against Corydon Central and then will play two games this weekend. On Friday, the Lady Rebels will travel to Christian Academy of Indiana and then return home Saturday for a game against Henryville.
The Lady Rebels will play in the Brown County Tournament on Jan. 3 when they take on the host school at 10 a.m. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Bloomington South-Beech Grove game at 3:30 p.m. on the same day.
The losers of the first two games will play one another at 2 p.m.
Crothersville          14  10 32  16 – 72
South Central          9  10 11  18 – 48
Crothersville (6-4, 2-0 SAC) – Addy Cole 21, Makayla Helt 12, Grace Wilson 9, Makenziee Isley 7, Kennadi Lakins 7, Zoe Spangler 7, Isabell Lewis 5, Bekah Cook 4.
South Central (0-8, 0-1) – Lily Boley 13, Marie Goodwin 9, Kendall Kiper 9, Makaylie Patterson 9, Kaitlyn Harl 4, Annabelle Faith 2, Lexi Liebert 2.
3-point goals – Crothersville 2 (Isley 1, Lewis 1).
