South got their first win of the season
under new head coach Jeff Case on Saturday night against Northridge.
The team made it closer than it should have been by relaxing in the
4th quarter and allowing Northridge to make a run and
close to within 2 scores, but South held off the Polar Bears late
charge and left with a 45-37 win to even up their record at 1-1.
The previous night South opened their
season against the Carlisle Indians. And after playing with Carlisle
for the first half, Carlisle took control of the game in the second
half and ran away with the game 56-26. It was a disappointing way for
South to start their season, and so they came into Saturdays game
hungry for a win.
The first quarter was all South as they
created points from turnovers on the defensive end of the court.
South trapped a little in the half court and also used a zone
defense. South pushed the ball hard on steals, but they were able to
score in their half court offense as well. Northridge used a variety
of defenses on the night – using man to man and several zone
defenses to try and slow down South scoring. But none of them were
effective in the first half as South had a 15-1 lead in the first
quarter and a respectable 28-10 lead at the half.
Northridge did adjust and swapped out
point guards. And they began to take care of the ball better, so
South got fewer points from turnovers in the second half, slowing
their pace of scoring. The two teams played evenly in the 3rd
quarter. Still South had a commanding 37-16 lead entering the last
quarter.
South seemed to relax at this point,
thinking the game was in hand. Sloppy ball handling and lax defense
on the perimeter allowed Northridge to get turnovers on defense and
connect on 3 pointers on offense. Suddenly it was a 43-37 game and
Northridge was 2 shots away from tying the ball game. As the clock
was winding down, Northridge began to foul – but South was missing
the front end of 1 and 1's. Finally Abby Creech hit critical 2 foul
shots to put the game out of reach and South held off Northridge's
final charge for the win.
Coach Case had this to say after the
game, “We had a lot of energy yesterday and we competed with
Carlisle for about a half. We got out of our game plan and tried to
comeback, but fell short. Tonight we got that same energy for all 4
quarters. They followed the game plan well – attacked the basket
and were offensive minded. I thought in the 4th quarter we
played not to lose instead of playing to win – but we will work on
that. But this is all a process; it was good for the girls to get the
win.”
Next he was asked about changing the
program, “This is all a learning process. Teaching them how to
lose and bounce back. How to go for a win. How to watch film, turn
that into drills and improve for the next game. It isn't going to
happen overnight. But they are buying into the system and I am proud
of their effort tonight.”
Coach Case comes to South with about 20
years of coaching experience locally. He took a year off last year
for family reasons and is back as a head coach. He is now refreshed
and rejuvenated. He mentioned Rick Hickman and Steve Fisher as
coaching mentors for him professionally.
South plays at Miami East on the 24th
for their 1st conference game. Then they play at Dixie on
the 30th.