Tigers defense tames Girard
HOWLAND — Howland coach John Diehl has turned the objective of girls basketball into a glass-half-full/glass-half-empty kind of conundrum.
Most teams try to outscore their opponents. The Tigers, however, are completely happy to hold their opponents to less points than they put on the board. Or, when translated, to play better defense than the team across the court.
That’s exactly what the Tigers did in dropping 11th-seeded Girard, 52-30, in a Division II sectional semifinal at Howland on Saturday.
“Coaches always stress defense, at least I do,” Diehl said. “I’ve always said it’s easier to keep the other team from scoring than it is to score yourself. I emphasize to keep them from scoring first.
“I’m very pleased with the defense,” Diehl said. “Defense has always been this team’s resume. Some of the girls can’t shoot, but they play great defense. We’re giving up an average of 39.1 points per game. I think our record is 37.5, but this team plays better defense.”
The second-seeded Tigers (18-5) host eighth-seeded Salem, a 55-50 winner over Lakeview on Saturday, in a sectional bracket final at 7 p.m. Thursday. The winner plays the (3) Poland-(5) Southeast winner in a district semifinal at Austintown-Fitch on Feb. 27 at 7:45 p.m.
“We got the first tournament game out of the way,” Diehl said. “The kids were relaxed. We’ll play the Lakeview-Salem winner and I hear that’s a real battle as we speak. I look forward to playing either one.
“I wasn’t pleased with the performance today, but we worked through it and got the win. I hope next week we’ll play a bit sharper, which I thought we had been doing recently. We haven’t faced a lot of zones, and when you don’t play zones, the kids aren’t used to getting to the right spots.”
Howland never scored more than seven consecutive points, and the Tigers’ best run was an 8-1 stretch to close the first period. Gabby Hartzell and Sara Price each had 3-pointers in the spurt and Alex Ochman scored from the block on a feed from Price.
“I’ve got to give Girard credit,” Diehl said. “They played that 2-3 zone and packed it in. They double-teamed Sara and forced the other girls to score, which they did. (Girard’s) defense was better than I thought. They’re obviously well-coached. They knew every play we ran.”
The Tigers closed the half outscoring Girard, 7-0, over the final 5:07 of the first half. Mackenzie Maze had a triple, Price netted a bucket and Ochman scored on a short baseline jumper.
“First of all, no one gave us a chance,” said Girard coach Andy Saxon, whose Indians finish 10-12 on the season. “We were playing the two-seed. No one gave us a fighting chance. We played hard from the opening tip until the very end. The girls did what we did in practice, what they were taught to do. The offensive end has been our Achilles’ heel all year. Putting the ball in the hoop has been an issue.”
Howland led, 19-8, at the break.
“Give Izzy (Albrecht, who drew the assignment of defending the Indians’ Makayla Trebella) credit,” Diehl said. “She did a great job on (Trebella). (Trebella) was a much better player when Izzy was not in the game.”
In the third, Leah Pollifrone, in off the bench, scored on a pair of jumpers as the Tigers extended their advantage to 32-18 to open the fourth period. Howland outscored the Indians, 11-3, over the final 3:16 of the fourth to advance.
“We played a good team,” Saxon said. “We missed some high-percentage shots. When you play a good team, you can’t miss those high-percentage shots. We turned it over a couple of times. We didn’t use the entire floor offensively. They played us to our right. I told the girls at the half they were cutting the floor off on us. The whole first half they were daring us to use our left hands and we didn’t. We missed shots here and there.”
Price nearly matched the entire Indians’ roster with 27 points. Ochman chipped in with eight points for the Tigers.
Trebella led the three Indians who scored with 18 points. Payich had 10 and Samantha Cave added the other two.
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