Broken Arrows West Holmes dominates Ashland 50-13 in OCC-opener
By Bill Houston
December 9, 2010
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Three games deep into a long season is pretty early to be running out of words to describe the manner in which West Holmes is beating its opponents. They rolled to victory, dismantled their opponents and thumped the opposition en route to picking up two non-conference wins to start the season. So how to describe their 50-13 Ohio Cardinal Conference-opening win over Ashland Thursday, Dec. 9 in the Dungeon – a 37-point win that pushed the Lady Knights (3-0, 1-0) average margin of victory to 33 points?
How about simply dominating at least for the final three quarters.
In quarter number one both teams struggled offensively as the Arrows (0-4, 0-1) went scoreless for the entire period and West Holmes only managed to put up seven points against Ashlands 2-3 zone defense.
We dont play a lot of teams that play a 2-3 zone from the beginning to the end like Ashland does, explained West Holmes head coach Lisa Patterson. So we struggled a little bit to put points on the board.
One player who didnt seem fazed by the Arrows zone, however, scoring five of the Lady Knights seven first quarter points on a jumper and a deep three from the top of the arc, was freshman phenom Laina Snyder, who also helped neutralize Ashlands offensive attack by coming up with three opening-period steals.
With Pattersons squad playing pressure D and swarming around the ball, sophomore guard Rachelle Morrison also ripped off three steals in the first quarter and senior post player Lindsy Snyder came away with one theft, as the Lady Knights held Ashland to only two shots for the entire quarter.
By period number two, West Holmes had figured out how to beat the zone D being used by Ashland head coach Jason Snow. The Lady Arrows, on the other hand, may still be wondering how to beat Pattersons stifling pressure D.
The Lady Knights extended their lead to 10-0 early in the second when three-point specialist Paige Asche buried her only trey of the night, but Ashland finally managed to get on the board as freshman forward Alexis Stoops split a pair of free throws to make it 10-1.
Up 20-3 with 2:22 left on the clock before halftime, Lindsy and Laina Snyder showed a little bit of what makes Pattersons 2010-11 team so competitive – beyond the obvious talent all 11 players possess – as the two sisters both ended up on the floor diving after a loose ball in the open court, despite the 17-point lead.
No matter what, you dont quit playing just because youre up, explained the older Snyder sister after the game. Maybe you pull the press off, but hustling-wise and defense-wise, you cant pull that off.
Added younger sister Laina Snyder, One of our goals is to outhustle the [other] team every time. That doesnt mean just whenever were down and whenever were close, its the whole time.
So with just over a minute to play before the break and up 25-5 the Lady Knights showed their hustle again, pulling off three consecutive steals on Ashland inbound plays under the basket, leading to a quick six points on easy buckets from Justice Wright, Emily Molnar and Laina Snyder, and a 31-5 halftime lead.
West Holmes is a little more fundamentally sound and they have good athletes and they do a nice job of communicating on defense, helping each other and pressuring the ball, explained Snow after seeing his offense held to just eight field goal attempts in the first-half. We were very weak with our guard play and when we face a lot of pressure thats our struggle right now, until we find guards.
As for Pattersons group of guards not named Asche or Laina Snyder, the West Holmes coach had warned after the Lady Knights last game that when they got untracked offensively other teams better watch out. But she also admitted some of those young guards may have been a little tentative with their shooting early on in the season.
Against Ashland, Molnar dished out a game-high four assists but also threw up a season-high 12 shots to finish with nine points, while Morrison, Wright, and Paiten Strother combined for 15 shots from the perimeter, having been urged by their coach and the senior leaders, Asche and Lindsy Snyder, to shoot more.
Despite shooting just 33-percent as a team, Patterson reiterated, Were getting shots, no question, so eventually well shoot consistently and look out, like I said. There are some kids that can score some points that you havent seen yet.
Added Snow afterward, I think we were fortunate that it wasnt the best shooting night theyve had from the perimeter. I thought we did a pretty good job of trying to get to some shooters and that was the positive we took out of it from the defensive end.
There wasnt a whole lot else positive to take away from it for Ashland after watching the Lady Knights outscore them 19-8 in the second-half to post the decisive win, behind a game-high 18 points from Laina Snyder, who finished with game-highs in defensive rebounds (6) and steals (5) as well.
Lainas a tough one to defend. I wouldnt want to have to figure out a way to defend her, said Patterson after the game.
Not many people are eager to defend Lindsy Snyder either, as the senior post chipped in a double-double, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds – all on the offensive end of the floor.
After watching her team rip off 21 steals, force 35 Ashland turnovers and hold the Arrows leading scorer, Stoops, to just five points in order to preserve the 37-point rout, Patterson said, We had a couple goals in mind defensively and we came close to achieving those goals. We like to set our standards kind of high.
Kind of?
Having now beaten their first three opponents by a combined total of 99 points, Pattersons squad still apparently hasnt come close to its potential at either end of the floor, with goals still to be reached defensively and scorers still yet to get untracked offensively.
Patterson keeps throwing out the same warning to upcoming opponents for when it all comes together for West Holmes watch out.
And they better heed her advice.
The Lady Knights travel to Orrville Thursday, Dec. 16 to take on the Red Riders.
