Spartans off to a slow start in girls’ hoops with opening loses

GREAT BARRINGTON – Despite dropping their first two games to Division 1 Westfield and powerhouse Quaboag last Saturday, Head Coach Chris Unsworth hopes his girls can find their shooting touch in the coming weeks and earn a needed win.

“They didn’t go down today,” Unsworth said after a 45-29 loss to Quaboag. “We had kids taking the shots we wanted they just didn’t go down.”

After trailing by a point at the half, 23-22, the Spartans went cold in the third quarter, failing to register a single basket. They were outscored 14-1, with the only point coming on a Hannah Rolf free throw.

“They battled for a half we just need to learn how to put two halves together,” Unsworth said.

After trailing 9-2 in the first quarter, the Spartans battled back keyed by point guard Rolf who found Hunter Cormier (eight points) for a hoop.

Fellow guard Haley Korte then connected with Heather Hassett (nine points) to cut the deficit to 13-9 with 1:26 left in the first.

The Spartans then turned up their zone pressure by switching back and forth with a 1-2-2 trap and a 1-3-1 to help clog the middle and limit the opportunities from the bigger Quaboag team.

“We are undermanned with injuries [Mary Ward and Sam White are out] – we switched to zone because we couldn’t compete with their height,” Unsworth said.

Monument even took the lead, 18-17, after Hassett hit a jumper from the outside in the second quarter, yet Quaboag came back with a steal and lay-up at the buzzer for the 23-22 halftime lead.

“They did a nice job getting to their spots and toward the end of the second quarter – we lost a little bit of the momentum and that carried into the third quarter,” Unsworth said.

The lack of offense in the third quarter certainly effected the Spartans on the defensive end, as Quaboag was able to get some easy baskets in the paint, building a 41-25 lead with five minutes left in the fourth quarter before the Spartans’ Katerina Lister finally knocked down a jumper from the outside to cut the deficit to 14 points.

“We tried to mix it up and give them different [defensive] looks to try to make them adjust,” Unsworth said. “There were some good signs of zone pressure and since we haven’t played a lot of zone in our past we had to adjust.”

Offensively, the Spartans go as far as Rolf can take them. With her ability to get inside the lane and create opportunities for her teammates, such as Hasslett and Cormier – and hopefully White when she returns, the Lady Spartans could have some success.

“If [Rolf] can get into the lane, that is one of our goals – and usually good things happen when she gets there,” Unsworth said.

Next up for the Spartans will be another challenge, this time against a very good Wahconah team. The Spartans may have to use their entire bench in order to have a shot against the Warriors.

“[Tonight] we just started to lose gas at the end,” Unsworth added.

Posted by Tim Davis on December 20, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry