ST. PARIS – Graham got out to an early lead before fending off a pesky Indian Lake squad to earn a 44-33 victory in CBC/MRD girls basketball on Wednesday.
It was the first win of the season for the Falcons.
“I’m very happy with their play. Tonight was the first game we played 32 minutes, and that’s what it’s going to take,” GHS Coach Steve Flora said. “I think tonight, they proved to themselves that they’re better than their record shows.”
The Falcons (1-6) hustled from the opening tip and used a mix of pressure defenses to force several turnovers.
“Tonight’s the first night we’ve used full-court pressure and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. We knew coming in they weren’t a very good ball-handling team, so that was an option,” Flora said.
In the first half, Graham’s half-court, man-to-man pressure resulted in a few steals that saw Falcons’ points go up on the board. In the second half, the full-court pressure resulted in easy looks with the Lakers short on defenders in transition.
Despite the turnovers, the third quarter saw the Lakers out-score the Falcons, 15-9, and cut a 20-11 halftime lead to a measly three points at 29-26.
“That’s what’s happened to us in three out of the six games we’ve lost. We were leading or close to a lead and we’d go into the fourth and seem to lose it somehow,” Flora said. “Tonight they responded and did well. And they’ve done the little things that we’ve taught them. If you do the little things, you can come away with a ‘W.’”
For the Falcons, Kayla Tullis had 14 points and Kari Sollenberger had 11. Morgan Evilsizor had 13 points for Indian Lake.
There was no jayvee contest.
Graham plays at Greenon on Saturday.
Urbana tops Shawnee
Urbana beat Shawnee, 50-40, in CBC/KTD girls basketball on Wednesday.
Hunter Rogan had 28 points and 8 rebounds, Alaina Lyons had 16 points and Bridget Ofori had 13 rebounds for the Hillclimbers.
“The kids played really well. They hustled,” UHS Coach Bill Moss said. “Bridget Ofori played really well for us. She didn’t score, but she really hit the boards and controlled the middle for us.”
Urbana (3-5) plays Stivers at the Miami East tournament on Saturday at 3 p.m.
JH basketball
Triad beat Madison Plains, 46-37, in 8th grade boys basketball. For Triad (2-2), Batai Lease had 11 points and Jalen Nott added 10.
Triad lost the 7th grade game, 36-27. For Triad (0-4), Ayden Sanford had 7 points, Gage Phillips added 6 and Jesse Bailey had 6.
