Dixie Battles Arcanum

The League leading Dixie Lady Greyhounds did battle with the 4^th seed Arcanum Trojans in the state tournament this past week.  It was an exciting game where Dixie gave Arcanum all that they could handle for all four quarters.   Arcanum had a slight height advantage and used that to their advantage in the first half.  They did a good job of hitting the boards and got a lot of second chance shots.

To counter this, Dixie resorted to a full court trap to generate turnovers after a time out late in the first quarter.    Dixie closed the gap, but were down 8-10 at the close of the quarter.   In the second quarter Dixie’s post player Cassidy Shell got her third foul and sat out the rest of the half.  Making it even tougher for Dixie to win the battle of the boards.  Then immediately after this, Arcanum nailed a trey to extend their lead.  And Arcanum closed out a strong quarter with one of their players winging a shot from half court and sinking it just as the buzzer sounded.  Arcanum had extended their lead to 28-19.

Shell got no love from the referee’s as she got her 4^th foul early in the 3^rd quarter on an offensive charge – again the junior took to the bench.  With Arcanum beating their press, Dixie settled into a zone-like ½ court defense.   Arcanum was able to nail their shots and extended their lead, but Kylie Hundley, who would lead Dixie scoring with 21 points, did a good of slashing to the basket and helped close the gap at the end of the quarter.  And Amara Wylie capped off a good run when the ball was stolen, tossed to her, and she scored on a layup at the end of the quarter.  Still Dixie was down 48-41.

And in the 4^th quarter it was a battle for every possession.  Hundley was a real factor in the teams run as they closed the gap with the Trojans. With about 3 minutes left to go, Dixie had whittled the lead down to 3 points.   Dixie began fouling but they only had 5 fouls and had to commit a couple of fouls just to get to bonus and put Arcanum on the foul line.   But Arcanum made their shots in the last few minutes and Dixie lost the ground that they had won, finally losing 64-51.

The Dixie coach was asked for comment after the game, “I thought it was a really hard fought game.  I thought that Arcanum played extremely well tonight.  We just didn’t really hit our shots in the second half and it made it hard to catch up. When we got it down to 3 points difference late in the game, I thought we really had a chance to turn the game around.  But they made shots and we didn’t. But I am proud of our girls, we had an amazing season.”

High scorer Kylie Hundley, “She has really came along when you see her as a freshman and now as a senior.  She was third leading scorer in our league this year – and she had another big game tonight.  She’s been a leader all this year.  Her and Abby Bertke have been our mainstays on offense this year. I am also proud of seniors Katy Parker and Ashley Rader.   When I took over 3 years ago we were 3-18, then 10-12 and now this year we go 16-6 and win the league title.  I am glad that they stuck with it and put in the hard work to get us here. “

Scoring for Dixie: Wylie 4, Shell 6, Hundley 21, Leis 5, Honeywell 1, Bertke 14.