With distractions swirling around them, the Bethel-Tate Lady Tigers were able to overcome a slow start with a strong finish to defeat Clermont Northeastern in a Southern Buckeye Conference American Division matchup on Thursday, Jan. 12, 44-33.
“We weren’t focused [starting the game],” Bethel head coach Dave Fallis said after the game. “No focus, it’s homecoming week, the white death was on its way and we forgot about basketball.”
Clermont Northeastern took advantage of their opponents’ sluggish start, setting the tone early on that they shouldn’t be taken lightly jumping out to a 4-0 lead.
Fallis called an early time out to try and light a fire under his squad. The Lady Tigers came out in a full-court press that showed some results as Bethel got back into the game scoring off CNE turnovers.
When the Lady Rockets were able to solve the Bethel pressure, they had a significant size advantage down low with Carly Aselage, Jessica Kirby and Allison Gilkerson that Rockets’ coach Jason Kreimer tried to exploit.
“When you look at my stats, my best three players are my big post players,” Kreimer said. “They have to play together, I have to find a way to get them involved.”
However, the Lady Tiger’s pressure made it difficult for CNE to get the ball into their half-court sets as a result of some costly turnovers.
“We’ve got to play fast, otherwise we won’t score,” Fallis said. “Our defense starts our offense. We know that we have to be going full-court to have them engaged all the time. We have to get it in transition and take advantage of those baskets.”
Bethel ended the quarter on a 12-2 run to take a 12-6 lead into the second quarter. Unfortunately for Bethel and Fallis, the Lady Tigers reverted to their opening form, allowing CNE to get back in the game.
The Bethel pressure lacked a sense of urgency and with some adjustments made by Kreimer and the CNE coaching staff, the Lady Rockets were able to get into their offense and create scoring opportunities.
“I think they’re starting to buy into what we’re doing,” Kreimer said. “They wanted that one pass and shoot or two passes and shoot, instead of three or four. They’re becoming a little more patient.”
The Rockets run a flex offense that relies on baseline cuts as well as patience at the high post as the offense runs through its progressions. CNE did a good job of waiting for the right man to open up and were able to convert easy layups. Even when the Lady Rockets missed their close-range shots, their superior size cleaned up on the boards, getting put-back baskets much to the chagrin of Fallis.
“We got lazy and thought we were going to throw the ball up and win,” Fallis said. “CNE always plays us tough, it’s a little bit of a ri
valry and we told them, if we want to control our destiny, it starts with rebounding and you don’t get a rebound unless you box out first, especially with the size they have.”
The Lady Rockets ended the second quarter on a run of their own coming back from 10 down at one point to tie the game at 21 as the buzzer sounded for halftime.
Coming out of the half, both teams clamped down on defense, only able to swap a few field goals in the third quarter with CNE holding the slimmest of advantages heading into the fourth quarter, leading 28-27.
“At 1-10, we’re just trying to mix things up,” Kreimer said. “We resorted to that two-three zone and tried something different, which actually looked pretty good. For three and a half quarters it looks good.”
With the game much tighter than the Lady Tigers expected, Bethel kicked their game into gear thanks to a little self-motivation that came out of Fallis benching a few of his key players.
“We sat some starters and let them examine themselves and decided if they were going to have the heart and hustle to bring this victory home and be in control of our destiny with league because we’re tied for first place,” Fallis said. “If we lose tonight, we’re not in control of our own destiny.
“They finally decided, waited until the fourth quarter, but finally decided to pick it up and play.”
The Bethel realization that they needed the win coincided with some CNE inexperience to allow the Lady Tigers to open up a small lead half-way through the fourth quarter.
The Lady Rockets held a 33-31 lead with just under six minutes remaining, but some missed shots coupled with the Bethel pressure kept CNE from scoring the rest of the game.
“We changed our zone press into a man press and that seemed to help a bit,” said Fallis. “Luckily, CNE didn’t hit their free throws. We sent them to the line quite a bit. Our intensity wasn’t there until the last four or five minutes of the fourth quarter.”
Bethel’s senior forward Cyra Jones stole the ball in the press and took it in for a layup to tie the game at 33, her first points of the game.
The Lady Tigers’ defense held CNE to one-and-done on the offensive end and then turned the tables on the Lady Rockets the next time down the floor as Bethel had four shot opportunities thanks some timely offensive rebounds that Brooke Jenike finally finished with a short shot from the lane.
“Brooke Jenike, freshman, has been coming along every game,” Fallis said. “She went four-for-four from the line tonight and hit two key baskets in the fourth quarter.”
Things went from bad to worse for the Lady Rockets as they were finally able to beat the man press Bethel installed on back-to-back trips to get open layups that they couldn’t convert.
“We’re young,” Kreimer said. “The two layups we missed there at the end were two freshman. With them in a varsity game and the game on the line, they’re not used to the pressure. Things started to go downhill and they panicked.”
Following the second miss, Jones scored her second field goal on a nice up-and-under move that got her defender in the air, giving her an open layup to give the Lady Tigers a 39-33 lead.
“Cyra Jones made two steals and had a real nice layup, that ended up being the difference in the game.”
Bethel’s press continued to give CNE problems down the stretch and instead of trying to convert those turnovers into quick points, the Lady Tigers chose to slow down their offense and use some clock.
When the Lady Rockets did get the ball back, they were unable to run their flex offense against the Bethel two-three zone. CNE’s offensive rhythm was thrown off and they were forced to take contested shots.
Bethel sealed the game from the free throw line to claim a 44-33 victory.
The win took Bethel to 7-5 on the season and having won four of their last five games, Fallis hopes with some distractions gone, the Lady Tigers will be ready to go this week.
“The good news is that we have two days off, they’ve got homecoming,” Fallis said. “Sunday we get back in here and remember how hard it was to beat CNE, knowing we have Batavia coming in here Tuesday, we can’t overlook them and then we got Western Brown at Western Brown on Thursday so I really shouldn’t have to motivate them too much.”
Clermont dropped to 1-11 on the season with the loss. Kreimer hoped after their first win coming just before the New Year that things would turn around for the Lady Rockets, but it’s been difficult as their schedule has not cooperated.
“It seems like we had games every day and now we played this Thursday and we have a game Saturday, but we don’t have another until next Thursday,” Kreimer said. “It seems like our schedule was heavy at the beginning and with a young team like this, you’d rather have it heavy at the end.”
The Lady Rockets dropped their game against Blanchester on Saturday, Jan. 14 and things don’t get much easier when CNE travels to New Richmond on Thursday, Jan. 19 to face the lead-leading Lady Lions.
CNE: (1-12) – Aselage 3 2 8, Kirby 3 0 6, Burdsall 1 4 6, Mantel 1 2 4, Gilkerson 1 2 4, Ward 1 1 3, Osborn 0 2 2. Totals: 10 13 33.
Bethel-Tate: (7-5) – Atkins 3 1 7, Baker 2 1 5, Jones 2 0 4, Lanigan 5 0 10, Al.Shinkle 0 1 1, Kilgore 2 0 4, Jenike 4 4 13. Totals: 16 7 44.
Halftime:Tied 21-21. 3-pointers: B 1 (Jenike).
