Howland's defense stuffs Salem, 36-21, in MAC battle

By DOUG CHAPIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HOWLAND -- In a nutshell, here is the story of Howland High's 36-21 Metro Athletic Conference girls basketball victory Saturday over Salem: The Quakers missed their first 11 field goal attempts, made one, then missed 11 more before recording their second made field goal of the game with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter.
That second bucket cut Howland's lead to 27-8 as the Tigers (12-2, 7-1 MAC) captured what amounted to an elimination battle in the conference race.
Howland, which has lost only to first-place Canfield in league play, is scheduled to play host to the Cardinals Wednesday.
"To hold a quality team like Salem [11-4, 5-3 MAC] to six first-half points is without a doubt our best defensive effort," Howland coach John Diehl said. "I've always said this is the best defensive team I've ever coached. There are no weak spots."
Good defense
The Tigers used an aggressive press early in the game, then backed off into a stifling half-court defense after running into foul trouble. Howland had four steals and Salem three turnovers in each of the first two quarters as the Tigers built a 14-1 lead after one quarter and extended it to 25-6 at halftime.
According to Diehl, Howland tweaked its press a bit from the first time the teams met.
& quot;Usually we use Ellie [Shields] as a center fielder in our press," he said. "This time we had her up denying the pass in to [Leah] Perry. Our pressure in the first quarter was excellent. We only came out of it because we got into foul trouble. And our subs, [Kelly] Barzak and [Kaylin] Hovance, did a great job. There was no dropoff in the defense with them in there."
Salem coach Jeff Andres gave Howland plenty of credit, but also said the Quakers missed shots they usually make.
"Their pressure definitely hurt us in the first half, but I think our performance was a little bit of us missing shots and them playing good defense," he said. "We had some looks we normally knock down. But Howland is a good team, they pressure the ball well and play physical inside."
Leaders
Senior post Shields scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Tigers. Barzak, a sophomore, added six points and five rebounds, Allie Airhart had five steals and Carly Sabat seven points.
"Allie Airhart had a good game for us, she had several steals there in the first half," Diehl said. "And Carly took the ball right down the sideline several times on the press breaker. I'm a firm believer that if a guard is going full blast to the basket and the other team is running backward, go ahead and take the ball to the hole."
Salem battled to get back into the game in the second half, but could get no closer than 15 points. The Quakers continued to have trouble shooting, making just 6-of-25 second-half field goal attempts.
"I'm proud of the way the girls came out after halftime and won the second half," Andres said. "They never quit battling. We just have to put this behind us and move forward. There are some things we have to work with as we get ready for tournament time."
Zahra Scullion had seven points and seven rebounds for Salem. Amy Scullion contributed five points and 10 rebounds and Katie Scullion had five points and five rebounds.