Lady Beavers reap the reward with pressure 'D'

Scott City's Holly Wilcoxson tries to gain control of a rebound against Liberal's Lyric Robinson during Friday's non-league win.

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By Rod Haxton, editor

SCHS girl’s basketball coach Mark Campos describes his team’s pressure defense as “high risk, high reward.”

The reward was evident Friday evening when the Lady Beavers stunned Liberal with a surprisingly easy 54-44 win that wasn’t even as close as the final score might indicate. Scott City (4-4) led by as many as 17 points (54-37) before allowing a late 7-0 scoring run by the Class 5A Lady Redskins.

“We worked a lot on our full-court pressure this week. We knew that Liberal’s guards were susceptible to pressure,” says Campos. “I told the girls this is a high risk, high reward type of pressure. We gave up a couple of easy baskets, but we forced more turnovers and got more steals which paid off for us.”

Scott City’s defense came away with 23 steals,led by senior Audrey Baker with seven and Shanaya Hoeme with six.

However, the bigger key to Scott City’s success came at the offensive end of the floor where they had three players in double figures for the first time this season. They did it by pounding the ball inside to junior pivot Janessa Lowenthal, who finished with a team high 14 points, and with mid-range jump shots from Baker and Hoeme who added 13 and 12 points, respectively.

“Our girls do a good job of driving to the basket, but I feel they’ve been doing too much of that. We’ve been sacrificing open looks to drive down to the baseline and then we get stuck with nowhere to go with the ball,” Campos notes. “I don’t want them to get way from driving the ball, but I also want them to take the 10- to 12-foot jumper if it’s there.”

It was there often enough for Baker to hit 5-of-10 from that range while Hoeme was 4-of-13.

Except for a brief 5-0 lead by Liberal, this was a game dominated by Scott City. SCHS answered Liberal’s early lead with a 17-2 scoring run that included seven points from Lowenthal in the low post.

Baker also knocked down a couple of baskets, including a 12-footer at the 5:27 mark of the second period that extended Scott City’s lead to 17-9. The Lady Beavers’ biggest lead of the half was 24-9 following a pair of Lowenthal free throws with 2:11 remaining.

Both teams were content with trading baskets throughout most of the second half.

Back-to-back baskets by Hoeme and Karen Rodriguez gave SCHS a 36-20 lead midway into the third period. Liberal cut the deficit to nine points, 42-33, with 5:34 left in the game following consecutive three-point baskets.

The Lady Beavers regained the momentum when Bailey Nickel finished off a fastbreak layup, Lowenthal drilled a jumper from an in-bounds play under the SCHS basket and Baker added a field goal at the 3:36 mark that put them back on top, 48-33.

Five consecutive free throws by Scott City put them on top 54-37 until Liberal closed out the game with a 7-0 burst in the final 24 seconds.

SCHS held a big 38-27 edge under the boards, led by Lowenthal with 13 and Hoeme with eight.

Baker dished out a team high nine assists.

“Even though we played well in the first half I felt the girls came out with even more intensity in the second half,” Campos says. “These girls need to believe in themselves and that they can play with anyone. Tonight they showed they could.”

Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s opening round games in the Orange and Black Classic, it’s possible the same two teams could meet again in the second round of tournament action.