UC Clermont's Arica Stutz scores two of her 13 points in the Lady Cougars' win over Edison on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.

UC Clermont's Arica Stutz scores two of her 13 points in the Lady Cougars' win over Edison on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.

By  Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor

The Clermont Lady Cougars began their quest to return to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association girls’ basketball championship tournament with a pair of games this past week.

On Nov. 2, the team held their season-opener in Batavia against Edison State College. The squad dominated the first quarter, jumping out to a 30-19 lead after one period. However, the Lady Chargers answered, cutting the Lady Cougars’ lead to just three points at halftime.

Edison took a 56-54 lead at the end of the third quarter on a three-point shot at the buzzer. They led 62-61 with 7:21 left in the game before a quick 6-1 spurt by UC Clermont put the Lady Cougars ahead by three.

Edison answered again, trimming the lead down to 71-69 with 1:30 left in the game. The Lady Chargers began fouling, and to UC Clermont’s credit, they hit the free throws. Edison pulled within five, but after a timeout, the Lady Cougars converted a quick layup and a foul into an eight-point lead en route to a season-opening 80-74 victory.

The UC Clermont Lady Cougars opened up their hardwood campaign with an 80-74 home win over Edison State on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.

Brittany Freson led all Lady Cougar scorers with 16 points. She also tallied four assists. Arica Stutz stuffed the stat sheet, scoring 13 points while tallying eight assists, eight rebounds, four steals and six blocks. UC Clermont head coach Rick Hosea said Stutz is the type of player who can make an impact in several different ways.

“That’s the kind of performer she is,” Hosea said. “She’s an all-around player. When she’s having a bad night shooting, she’s one of the ones you still want on the floor because of what else she can do. That’s something she’s capable of doing on a regular basis. She did it last year, I’m hoping for more consistency this season.”

Ashley Johnson added 13 points and Betsy Walsh chipped in 15 points off the bench for the Lady Cougars. Walsh’s performance earned her a bigger role in the team’s second game of the year.

“She’s a very talented freshman,” Hosea said. “I didn’t start her the first game but I started her the second game. I wanted to start a little bit of a larger lineup.”

The Lady Cougars suffered from the same inconsistency they displayed against Edison in their second game against Wilberforce, according to Hosea.

“It’s been a tale of two teams,” Hosea said. “The first quarter and the fourth quarter looked really good [against Edison], but the second and third quarter were just barely OK. We played half a game really well. The first quarter we looked to be in midseason form. I was very pleased. The second and third quarter, not so much.”

The same problem occurred against the Lady Bulldogs on Saturday, Nov. 5. UC Clermont managed just 15 points in the first half and found themselves trailing by 25 at the break.

“We couldn’t do anything correctly,” Hosea said. “We got ourselves totally out of sync, and despite talking about it during the first half they didn’t really catch on to what the coaches wanted them to do until halftime.”

The adjustments were made, but too late to make an impact on the final result.

“After getting beat by 25 in the first half, we won the second half by 10,” Hosea said. “Same team, same players pressing the entire time. After we made the adjustments, we were the better team of the two. We just gave up too much in the first half. That’s kind of a young team, making the adjustments on the fly versus having halftime to adjust it. But to their credit, they did it faster than waiting until practice.”

Again, Freson led the Lady Cougars in scoring, this time tallying 18 points. She currently is averaging 17 points per game for the Lady Cougars, and while Hosea said that number may be a bit high, her athleticism should allow her to maintain a double-digit average.

“She’s extremely athletic, and she was kind of green in the basketball sense last year,” Hosea said. “Last year, she gained a lot of experience and I’m expecting big things from her this year. There’s not very many people that can run with her. Because of that, she’s got the instruction that any time the ball goes up, she has to assume that we’re going to get the rebound and she takes off. Whenever possible, we catch and throw a long pass to her. I don’t know if I can expect a 17 point average but I do expect double digits.”

Walsh got the start in the loss to Wilberforce and scored 14 points while pulling down five rebounds. Stutz missed double-digit scoring by one point, but tallied 10 rebounds and two steals in the process.

Through two games, UC Clermont has totaled 18 steals, and those active hands are something Hosea hopes continues and rubs off on the team’s younger players.

“The three girls that are returning players, [Kelsey] Finn, Stuts and Freson, all are used to doing that and are pretty good at it,” Hosea said. “The other girls are catching on. The big thing is you don’t want to overplay to the point where you take yourself totally out of possession and allow easy baskets. You have to adjust.”

The Lady Cougars are preparing for three straight conference games in the next six days. The team travels to Southern State for a game against Penn State Greater Allegheny at noon on Saturday, Nov. 12. They then return home for a 1 p.m. game against Andrews University on Sunday, Nov. 13 before facing Southern State in Batavia at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16. Hosea said the team needs to find a way to be consistent if they want to have success in their conference.

“We have to play like we did in the second half at Wilberforce,” Hosea said. “We have to play a complete game. Right now we’ve played two games and played one half good and other half not so good. We need to develop some consistency. That’s the main thing.”