Unproven freshmen? Not anymore.
In a game that for much of the night looked like exactly what it was – the season opener for both West Holmes and Tri-Valley – Lady Knights’ fans were treated to the much anticipated debut of three highly touted freshmen, as head coach Lisa Patterson used a perfect combination of size, depth and pressure defense to roll over the visiting Scotties 41-19, Saturday, Nov. 27, in the friendly confines of the Dungeon.Setting the tone of the game and perhaps the season right from the get-go, freshman shooting guard Laina Snyder won the opening tip and dished a pass to her older sister and senior post-player, Lindsy Snyder, for an easy layup and the first two points of the game.
Tri-Valley junior forward Kaylee Hamilton hit a bucket at the other end of the floor to tie things up at two, but that was the last time the game would be close as Patterson’s smothering pressure D locked up the Lady Scotties, holding the visitors scoreless for the rest of the opening period and forcing 35 turnovers throughout the game.
Over half of those turnovers came from West Holmes steals, as freshman starting point guard Emily Molnar came away with six thefts during her 21 minutes on the floor and freshman backup guard Paiten Strother came off the bench to add five.
Strother hit her only basket of the game in quarter number one, as did five-foot-10-inch sophomore post Mallori Vess, while senior guard Paige Asche capped a nine-point first-quarter for West Holmes with a deep three from the right side of the arc to beat the buzzer.
After leading the Lady Knights with 44 threes a year ago, Asche would add one more to her career total to finish the game with six points, but quarter number two belonged to the older Snyder sister, as Lindsy Snyder scored six of the Lady Knights 11 second-quarter points to lead West Holmes into the break with a 20-9 lead.
However, if the second quarter belonged to the older Snyder sister, the second half belonged to the younger, with Laina dumping in 10 points over the final two periods, as Snyder and Snyder each finished with a game-high 13 points to lead the Lady Knights.
“It’s nice to have the Snyder girls on your team,” said Patterson after the game. “They’ve dreamed about playing together like this for a long time. They’re fun to watch because it’s just one of those things where they have that connection with each other, obviously.”
“It was fun,” Laina said afterward and Lindsy simply added, “Awesome.”
But the senior Snyder also dished out compliments to the entire freshmen trio (Laina Snyder, Molnar and Strother) as well. “I don’t think you could tell they were freshmen tonight,” she said. “Maybe the first 30 seconds, but then they played like they’ve been playing for as long as we have.”
In addition to the two seniors and three freshman, Patterson used junior post player Mariah Oswalt for nearly eight minutes while also giving significant time to, and getting contributions from, her five sophomores – including Vess (2 points, 1 rebound), Justice Wright (3 points), Natalie Abraham (1 rebound), Rachelle Morrison (3 assists), and Maria Straits – as her 11-deep rotation and decided size advantage eventually took its toll on Tri-Valley.
Playing more than 22 minutes in the low post, Lindsy Snyder completed a double-double by tearing down 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Knights who out-rebounded Tri-Valley 34-24, with 24 of those rebounds coming off the offensive glass, creating multiple scoring opportunities.
After battling against the six-foot Snyder most of the night, Scotties senior forward Alex Lawler (2 points, 5 rebounds) said after the game, “We saw what we expected. We knew they were going to crash the boards and we should have been ready for it.”
“I thought their size inside really wore us down,” added Lady Scotties head coach Marty Bice after watching his girls get outscored 12-7 in the third quarter and 9-3 during the final period. “We just couldn’t get some offense going and eventually toward the end of the game their depth wore us down.”
Patterson knew the underclassmen on her roster were going to provide her with a lot of depth going into this season, comparing her job to someone putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
“It’s nice when you have young kids that I feel confident enough to be able to put out there on the floor,” she said. “They’re very feisty and a competitive group, the younger kids are.”
Despite the lopsided victory, the Lady Knights only shot 36-percent from the floor and made just two of four free throws.
“We got a lot of shots, but hopefully more of those shots will go in in the future once they settle down a little bit and get some minutes under their belts,” said the Lady Knights’ head coach whose team hosts Triway on Saturday, Dec. 4.
One big difference going into that game is that the trio of Laina Snyder, Molnar and Strother will no longer be three highly touted freshmen. They’ll be experienced varsity basketball players looking to help lead their team to a 2-0 start.