Western overpowers Green, 56-26

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Derrick Parker

PDT Sports Contributor

FRANKLIN FURNACE — The Western Lady Indians defeated the Green Bobcats Thursday evening by a score of 56-26. Green failed to find their offensive rhythm throughout the game, turning the ball over numerous times and struggling from the floor. Western capitalized on the turnovers and took advantage of their size as they crashed the offensive glass with many second chance scores.

The first quarter started a bit sloppy for each team. Turnovers plagued both squads but the difference was rebounding margin. Indian’s senior Mallorie Williams had 12 rebounds inside to go along with her 14 points in the post. The Bobcat’s star player, Kaylynn Blizzard, suffered with an ailment all night which translated to a rough night on the floor. After one the score was 15-7 with Western leading.

Western cleaned up their turnovers in the second quarter. The offense had much more flow and pacing to it and they took advantage of Green’s mistakes. Erin Brewster would go into halftime with 13 points for the Indians. Green was outscored 4-20 in the second period stretching the margin to 35-11.

The rest of the game Western coasted to the finish line while Green continued to struggle without their best player being 100 percent. Adrian Hall tried to take over ball handling duties much of the night but was stopped as the Western defense clamped down on her and the passing lanes. She finished second in scoring for the Bobcats with seven.

Despite playing limited minutes, Blizzard lead the Bobcats with nine. Head Coach Melissa Knapp was obviously disappointed with the loss.

“It’s the same thing I’ve been saying the last few games,” said Knapp. “Against New Boston our rebounding wasn’t this bad. They killed us on the boards tonight. We had a lot of turnovers tonight, too. We got down and couldn’t manage to battle back. We have to be able to score more points.”

“Kaylynn Blizzard had a bad night but she was struggling with a sickness. That affects us a lot as a team. The other kids tried and played as hard as they could play. I keep trying to preach ball handling in the lower levels because we have to be able to develop that coming up. Our biggest struggle is ball handling. I know we have having a tough time with turnovers and scoring, but if you can’t handle the basketball you don’t give yourself a chance to score.”

“We’ve got a long term plan here. Western has a great basketball team and we are making strides here. We have to keep working. Our next game isn’t until after Christmas, and we are going to go out and try to beat them. I think we can do it.”

Green hosts the St. Patrick’s Saints on December 28th. Tipoff is at 6:00 P.M.

C.C. Shanks led Western in scoring with 16. Her and Erin Brewster, who had 15 points herself, controlled the Indian offense much of the night. Head Coach Tiffany Carrol was very pleased with her team leaders.

“We had a good team effort,” said Coach Carrol. “We played well as a whole, we put a focus on rebounding tonight and I was really proud of the effort. The leaders, Mallorie, Erin, and C.C. were great for us. C.C. leads us in scoring and did so again tonight. Mallorie took advantage of the mismatches inside and Erin was getting the ball out to people tonight and taking her own shot when it was there.”

“We go into the Holiday Classic on Monday. Our first game is against Eastern and we’ve seen them once this year already. We have a cross county rivalry, it’s always a big game for us. We have a plan to slow down Carson Roney, but you are never going to stop her. She’s a phenomenal athlete and a great basketball player but as a team we should be able to compete and win that game. But when you have an athlete like Roney you have to be prepared. We will see how it goes.”

Reach Derrick Parker at [email protected] or on twitter @DC__Parker

Box Score

Box Score 1 2 3 4 F

Green 7 4 6 9 26

Western 15 20 10 11 56

Individual Stats:

Green: Blizzard 9, Hall 7, Davis 5, Deerfield 3, Johnson 2

Western: Shanks 16, Brewster 15, Williams 14, Heffner 4, Whitt 3, Tong 2, Miller 2

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