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| Coach Pulls Starters In Search For Energy Monday |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by David Wolman | |||
| Wednesday, 28 January 2009 09:00 | |||
Osawatomie girls’ basketball coach Don Blanchat pulled his starters less than two-and-a-half minutes into Monday’s 56-47 loss to Belton in the Louisburg Invitiational. He wasn’t too pleased with how they were playing. “It just didn’t seem like we came out with a lot of intensity,” he said. “It didn’t seem like we were ready to play. I don’t know what the reason was, but it just seemed like they were sluggish out there.”Blanchat cleared his bench, hoping his reserves would come into the game and inject some energy into the team. “We had none at the start of the game,” he said. Less than two minutes later, he re-inserted his starters. “By subbing them, it gave them some time to think about things,” he said. “I talked to them and hoped they could get back in and get after it. Hopefully that would send them a message.” Rebecca Fisher got the message. She got Osawatomie back into the game with her ability to take the ball to the rim on a couple of occasions. “Rebecca did pretty good,” Blanchat said. “She was driving the ball pretty good to the hole, and getting us some early points when we really needed it.” Fisher scored 19 points and pulled down four rebounds. Nobody else, however, seemed to get the message in Osawatomie’s loss to Belton. Osawatomie will face KC-Harmon at 7:30 tonight in the consolation semifinals. Osawatomie trailed 5-2 when Blanchat pulled his starters, but bad passes created turnovers, and that prevented the Trojans from getting any flow on the offensive end. Turnovers have hurt Osawatomie this season, and did again Monday, as the Trojans committed 31 turnovers. Needing a spark on the offensive end, Fisher provided it, dribbling the ball through the hole for layups or short jump shots. She drove the lane for back-to-back layups to tie the game at 7-7 late in the first quarter. Blanchat hoped Fisher’s ability to penetrate the lane would help her teammates get going. “Like I told them, when one player starts to get going, others need to start stepping around that player and building it to a 10-player team,” Blanchat said. “We felt like we could take advantage because they had some early foul trouble. We wanted to definitely drive the ball at them.” Osawatomie did, however, have problems containing the tandem of Kelsey Simmons and Precious Vassel. The two Pirates burned the Trojans from the field. Vassel sandwiched a jumper and free throw around a Fisher turnaround jumper for a 15-10 lead. She finished with 16 points. Then it was Simmons’ turn. She connected on a layup following an Osawatomie turnover and then hit a 3-pointer for a 20-10 lead, forcing Blanchat to call a timeout. She led all scorers with 25 points. Even with all that went wrong for Osawatomie (2-9) in the first half, Blanchat was surprised to see his team trailed just 25-20 at halftime. “Oh yeah,” he said. “Once again, turnovers, like they have all season, just killed us.” Fisher provided the spark coming out of the locker room. She brought the Trojans even with Pirates in the opening two minutes of the second half. After recording a putback off a missed 3-pointer by Brittney Booe, she buried an open 3-pointer to tie the game at 25-25. “When we pulled back even, I thought the momentum was on our side,” Blanchat said. Not for long. Fisher picked up her third foul shortly after as she swiped Mackenzie Porter on the arm as she went up for a putback, and was quickly relegated to the bench. Having to watch from the sidelines for the next four-and-half minutes, she saw Belton go on a 9-2 run to grab a 37-27 lead. The Pirates chased down rebounds and forced Osawatomie into committing turnovers. Osawatomie looked to trap Belton’s guards along the sidelines in an attempt to get back in the game. Despite an increased energy level in the fourth, a double-digit lead proved to be too much for the Trojans to overcome. Booe scored nine pounds. Kortney Bailey and Rachel Fisher each scored five points. Bailey also pulled down nine rebounds. On Jan. 21, Osawatomie lost a competitive game to Baldwin 51-42 in Baldwin. Osawatomie led 10-8 in the first quarter, but turnovers on their next six possessions forced the Trojans to play catch-up the remainder of the game. Booe scored 15 points to lead the Trojans. Bailey added 10 points.
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