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SECOND-HALF REVERSAL
By Steve Wilaj
BELOIT
For the first 16 minutes, the South Range High School girls basketball team went toe-to-toe with West Branch in Monday’s showdown of premier teams.
Although it was in sloppy fashion, the Raiders trailed the one-loss Warriors by just four points at the break.
“I thought we took it to them in the first half and had them on their heels,” South Range coach Tony Matisi said. “I’m not sure if they’ve been in that position where somebody came in like that and rocked them a little bit.”
Apparently, that rocking woke up West Branch for the final 16 minutes.
Playing a much cleaner second half, the Warriors defeated South Range, 52-39, in a contest of teams that entered with three combined losses.
West Branch — which was paced by Pavin Heath’s 14 points and six rebounds — was keyed by a 16-4 third quarter advantage.
“We wanted to keep our confidence up and keep pushing it and playing a little better defense without reaching,” Warriors coach Walt DeShields said. “And I thought in the third quarter, we picked up the pace a little bit and started attacking the rim and our offense started clicking.”
It was a significant change from the first half.
The Warriors (19-1) led 13-11 after one quarter and 23-19 at the half as each team committed 13 turnovers.
Both coaches were forced to go to their benches early because of foul trouble — and that’s where Matisi felt South Range (16-3) missed its opportunity.
“I thought we should have been up 7-10 points at halftime,” he said. “They had their two best kids on the bench and that’s when we had to do something. We just missed way too many free throws and then we turned it over.”
The Raiders — who finished 11-for-26 at the foul line and with 24 turnovers — continued their sloppy play into the third quarter. Meanwhile, West Branch committed just one third-quarter turnover as it raced to a 39-23 lead entering the fourth.
“The first half pace was really slow and both teams were out of sync,” DeShields said. “For a while there, it looked like it was gonna be the first team to 30 or 35 points …
“But we got a couple turnovers and rebounds [in the third quarter] and got some easy baskets.”
Melinda Trimmer, who finished with seven points and 10 assists, and Kaylee Manning, who added nine points, sparked the outburst.
“We just didn’t let [the first half] get to us at all,” Manning said. “Our demeanor was good and we didn’t let it get to us mentally. We kept playing.”
As for South Range, the Raiders shot 13 of 33 from the field. Jordan Youngs 16 points and Ashley Sharp’s eight points led the way,
“They make you start at half court and put so much pressure on the ball,” Matisi said. “They came out in the second half and picked their intensity up — especially the defensive pressure — and that hurt us.”