By Garth Shanklin
Sports Editor
The Clermont Northeastern Lady Rockets hosted Taylor High School for their girls’ basketball opener on Nov. 26, and thanks to some timely free-throw shooting late, CNE emerged victorious, 52-44.
Neither team could separate themselves from the other for most of the game. Taylor held a 10-8 lead at the end of the first period, but CNE went on an 8-2 run thanks to baskets from four different Lady Rockets to take a 14-10 lead. A quick 7-2 spurt by the Lady Jackets gave them a brief 17-16 advantage, but the Lady Rockets re-took the lead with 3:20 left in the half and maintained a 22-21 advantage at the break.
Taylor started the third quarter on a 3-0 run to take a 24-22 lead. It was a short-lived advantage, as CNE’s Olivia Bricker hit a two-pointer and teammate Leah Decatur converted a three-point play to put the Lady Rockets back on top 27-24. Back-to-back baskets gave Taylor a one-point lead with less than five minutes left in the quarter, but Andrea Johnson answered with four quick points of her own to give CNE the lead again.
The Lady Rockets held just a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating basket by Taylor’s L. Bruns.
That’s when the free throw shooting began to play a key role for the Lady Rockets. The team connected on 13 of their 15 free-throw attempts in the period. Leah Decatur scored eight points in the fourth quarter, six of which came on made free-throws.
Her 16 points led all Lady Rocket scorers in the game. Andrea Johnson added 15 points, with Sydney Krug chipping in nine. Decatur also tied for the team lead in rebounds with Kylie Dollenmeyer. Both Lady Rocket players grabbed 10 rebounds.
The victory was the first for new CNE coach Bill Goldfuss, who said the team’s primary goal was to start the year off with a victory.
“It’s nice, it feels great,” Goldfuss said. “That was our goal, that’s the only goal we had: be 1-0 after the first game. They’ve been working hard these last four or five weeks, it showed today. We had a lot of effort and contributions from a lot of different kids, and it all came together at the end.”
The fact that the team was able to pull together is no easy feat, considering the amount of roster turnover the Lady Rockets had from last season to this one.
“We have a lot of new players on varsity, so we’re trying to get used to each other,” Goldfuss said. “We still have to understand the situations and be patient. I think that was one big reason: getting used to playing with each other and understand what we’re looking for. I think that’ll get better as the season goes on.”
The team will need to continue to rely on good free-throw shooting from Decatur and Johnson, according to Goldfuss.
“The two that were shooting them usually shoot them pretty well,” Goldfuss said. “We worked on that in practice. That’s one of the goals we set, we’re not big so we’re going to have to push the ball, get some easy baskets in transition and make free throws. Free throws are going to be a premium, and we work on them every day.”
The Lady Rockets turned around and faced Norwood on the road on Nov. 28. Despite a seven-point effort from Andrea Johnson, the Lady Rockets lost the game to the Lady indians 43-26. Clermont Northeastern returns to action on Thursday, Dec. 1 with a home contest against Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy at 7:30 p.m.