NORTH ROBINSON — Colonel Crawford used a simple, but effective, strategy to defeat Mohawk, 43-25, Thursday night in girls Northern 10 Athletic Conference action.
“We wanted to make it difficult for them to throw the ball inside,” said Lady Eagles coach Zac Bauer. “Klopp is a darn good player with good touch around the rim, so we knew we wanted to make it difficult.”
Difficult indeed, as a collapsing defense held Klopp to 4 first-half points and 11 total, five below her league leading average of 16 per game.
Crawford’s speed and offensive execution kept the pace quick as the hosts jumped out to a 24-8 halftime lead. Throughout the game the hosts got loose balls and converted several turnovers into fast-break baskets.
Ten first-half turnovers put Mohawk (7-3, 3-3) in a steep deficit.
“One thing we do is pay attention to detail in practice,” Bauer said. “They do mundane things in practice. We do shell drill every day and when we do that our kids focus with their mental attention so sharp that it carries over. It’s gotten us where we are.
“They don’t take mental possessions off in practice and that’s carried over to the games.”
Mallory Plesac led the way with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Allison Weithman netted 11 and Lynae McKibben 8 as Colonel Crawford improves to 10-1 overall and 4-1 in the N10.
Plesac, the lone senior, is often called upon to lead her squad.
“Mallory gets baskets. She gets good looks and she’s a leader of our team, not so much vocal but execution-wise,” Bauer said. “She was there for us tonight.”
Plesac got 5 of the Lady Eagles’ points in the first quarter as Mohawk managed a lone field goal in falling behind 13-4.
Being patient is a key to the Lady Eagles offensive approach.
“We can run fast, and we can run often. But we don’t need to be in a hurry, and we really did take that to heart tonight,” Bauer said.
“It’s OK to have long possessions. It’s OK to have 5 passes before we shoot. If we need to win games low, we can. It’s something we had to do before when we haven’t made shots.”
Lady Warriors coach Bruce Hannam said his team was off in several areas.
“I really don’t know. We have been playing well, but we haven’t had a match-up against a team like this. They stepped up the pressure a little bit and we just kind of regressed.”
Mohawk battled back in the second half scoring 17 points to CC’s 19.
“We couldn’t get out of our way all night,” Hannam said. “It looks like we got a good shot, or it looks like we got a good pass and it’s off our fingers. Sometimes you have nights like that. We needed to match that (their speed) with physicality.”
Hannam lamented the poor start but thought the second half was better.
“We dug a hole. We came out in the second half and wanted to attack the paint, which we didn’t do a great job of. Defensively, we were a little sluggish in the first half, not communicating and moving.”
Bauer hopes the win can propel his team into a busy stretch ahead. It starts with Upper Sandusky at home on Jan. 6, followed by a visit to Buckeye Central Jan. 10.
“It’s huge going into the second half of the season, let alone we have a tough three-game stretch starting tonight. We don’t want to be in a position where we need anybody’s help to win a league championship,” he said.
“We can’t have two losses to Buckeye Central’s zero. We’ve got to take care of ourselves one possession at a time and one game at a time, so when we get back to Buckeye, we can be in a position to put ourselves where we want to be.”
The Buckettes won the first meeting between the rivals 38-19 in early December.
Mohawk visits McComb Jan. 4, hosts North Baltimore 3 days later and then travels to Bucyrus.
Junior Mia Miller added 6 points, all from the free throw line, and 5 boards for the Lady Warriors.
“Every little thing. We started to build momentum and play a little better defense, and the next thing you know they’re doing a lay-up uncontested under the basket,” Hannam said.
He said the goal was to get 3-4 touches on offense and at least one paint touch per possession.
“We just couldn’t do anything right in the first half. We were stone cold from the floor. The intensity for rebounding and loose balls — we didn’t get many of those tonight.
“It’s a little bit of a head-scratcher, but we’ll keep a positive attitude.”
Box score
Mohawk 4 4 8 9 — 25
Colonel Crawford 13 11 11 8 — 43
Mohawk (7-3, 3-3 N10): Shots 8-39; 3-pt. shots 1-4 (Bailey Sheets); Free throws 8-15; Rebounds 28 (Emily Klopp 11); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Brooklen Helton 2 0 4, Bailey Sheets 1 0 3, Emily Klopp 5 1 11, Mia Miller 0 6 6, Joleigh Hamilton 0 1 1.
Colonel Crawford (10-1, 4-1 N10): Shots 18-29; 3-pt. shots 2-3 (Mallory Plesac, Allison Weithman); Free throws 5-9; Rebounds 26 (Mallory Plesac 6, Lynae McKibben 5); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Gabby Roston 1 0 2, Mallory Plesac 5 3 14, Mira Holt 1 0 2, Allison Weithman 4 2 11, Lexi Rush 1 0 2, Niyah Shipman 2 0 4, Lynae McKibben 4 0 8.
JV: Mohawk 31-24.