After a tough loss last week, in which the Marmaton Valley high school girls rushed their offense and forced shots that weren’t there, head coach Gavin Cole talked to his team during the intervening week and preached patience. And last night: all the Lady Wildcats said ‘amen.’
In a well-played, expertly-coached four quarters, the Wildcats dispatched the visiting Lady Titans of Southern Coffey County 44-33. Though the score narrowed now and then, the result was rarely in doubt. The Wildcats controlled the tempo at both ends of the floor.
“A lot of things we’ve been trying to correct the whole year I thought, finally, we really started putting it together,” said Cole. “I thought we were patient with the press, we took care of the ball fairly well. That was nice to see. And then, offensively, I thought we were patient with the offense and then when we wanted to slow it down at the end of the game, we slowed it down. I was proud of them for that.”
Cole is politely understating the Wildcats’ superior execution in the half-court set, especially when it counted.
Here’s an example. Just under a minute to go in the first half. The Lady Wildcats have the ball. Cole barks from the sideline: “One shot.” The guards spread out. The post players move from the low block to the elbow and back again. The ball skips from player to player. Everyone gets a touch. They’re playing for time. SCC is scrambling on D, a tick behind. Sophomore Misty Storrer comes off a screen at the elbow — the final seconds of the first half are draining off the clock — she catches the ball at the top of the key, squares her shoulders and fires a three. It’s on line. It hits the back of the rim and bounces high up in the air. The clock runs out, the buzzer sounds. The ball falls back to earth, but not without first passing cleanly through the net. Three points. The Lady Wildcats close the half up 20 – 14.
The team reenacted an almost identical play, with similar success, to close out the third quarter.
“Those points were huge. That’s a turn in the game,” said Cole. “That gives you so much momentum when you hit a shot there at the buzzer.
Storrer’s overall performance was not lost on her coach. “I want to give credit to Misty Storrer. That girl, she works her butt off — rebounding, playing defense. Tonight she had eight points. She went 5 for 6 from the line. I thought she played a heck of a game.”
But last night’s win was very much a team effort. “Brooklyn Newman I want to mention also.” Newman had eight second half points for the Lady Wildcats. “Brooklyn might not have had eight points the whole season,” said Cole. “We’ve been kind of harping on it, ‘Shoot the ball, Brooklyn, shoot the ball. We’ve got confidence in you.’ Tonight, she was clutch down there at the end.”
Marmaton Valley started strong, racing out to an 8 – 0 lead. The league’s perennial stat-stuffer Mackenzie Tynon contributed exactly all of those points. Tynon was the game’s leading scorer with 22; followed by SCC’s Ericah Lyons and Brittne Brite, who each added nine.
Much of the Lady Wildcats’ easy offense resulted from the smothering success of the team’s defense.
“When I talked to them there on Tuesday. I said that what was kind of disappointing is that we gave up 61 points. [SCC’s Kalyn] Deal is a very good shooter and we didn’t let her loose tonight. She had one or two decent looks, but they were contested. So I was proud of the effort we put out there defensively. And, you know, that’s top to bottom. When we were full-court pressing, Mac [Tynon] came up and did some nice things, Magie [Stevenson] did some nice things.
“I’m happy tonight.”
But not satisfied: “We’ve got two games left in the regular season. Take that momentum into sub-state. And take that momentum into the off-season. We’ve been talking about building a program up. I keep telling them that they can be the ones to turn it around. I think it’s starting to click for them; I think they’re starting to understand. And they’re starting to understand the work it’s going to take to make that happen.”
Marmaton Valley girls play complete game in win over SCC
