Niles defends well in victory

Girard's Cachet Murray, recovering from the flu, was held out of the game.
& lt;a href=mailto:scalzo@vindy.com & gt;By JOE SCALZO & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
GIRARD -- The best player on the Girard High girls basketball team was missing Thursday, but that doesn't mean Niles came in over-confident.
"I think Cachet [Murray] helps them a lot, but they're still good without her," said Red Dragon sophomore Stephanie Parish. "We still had to pick it up."
They did. Especially on defense.
Niles held Girard to just 17 percent shooting from the field -- including just 11 percent over the last three quarters -- to pull away for a 36-23 non-league victory at Girard High School.
"Obviously, not having Cachet is going to change your approach," said Niles coach Jerry Postlethwait. "We didn't have to make many adjustments and we played good defense tonight.
"It was a big win for us."
Solid performance
Especially since Niles played much of the second half without standout guard Stacia Ray, who left with an injury early in the third quarter and played sparingly the rest of the way.
"I don't know if we lost any ground [with her out]," Postlethwait said. "It's always nice to know that we can play well even when she's not in there."
Niles also did a good job underneath, out-rebounding the smaller Indians 36-24. Parish -- easily the tallest player on the court at 5-feet-11 -- grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds and scored five points.
"We've really become a team," said Parish. "We've matured since last year and we only lost one senior [Tara Mitchell] so we've got almost everybody back.
"I think we're a lot better."
Sophomore Kelly Leonard had eight points and senior Shannon Floyd had seven points, six rebounds and five assists for the Red Dragons (2-0).
Senior Angela Raggazine had 11 points for Girard (1-1), while seniors Erin Walters and Justine Christopher each added five rebounds.
Big loss
Murray, who is recovering from the flu, was late to school on Thursday and was held out of the game due to "an administrative decision," said Girard coach Andrew Saxon.
"I felt really bad for the team," Saxon said. "When you lose one of the best players in the state to an administrative decision, that's tough. Not having Cachet probably cost our team 20, 25 points."
Girard, which finished second in the Trumbull Athletic Conference last season, was already struggling to replace the four starters it lost to graduation.
With Murray out of the lineup, the undersized Indians had no inside threat and the Red Dragons were content to let them beat them from the outside.
Needless to say, they didn't.
"They did what they had to do to win," Saxon said. "We played OK defensively, but we didn't shoot the ball well.
"But it was just one of those nights. We're going to get better."
& lt;a href=mailto:scalzok@vindy.com & gt;scalzo@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;