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More than right: Tigers’ Price nearly perfect
By ERIC FORTUNE
HOWLAND
The loss of Tori Rappach from last year’s district runner-up squad created a big void for the Howland Tigers.
But Howland coach John Diehl seems to pull the right strings as his team’s 69-49 victory over the Warren G. Harding Raiders in an All-American Conference, Red Tier matchup gave the Tigers (16-4, 10-1) their second straight AAC title.
“It’s nice,” Diehl said. “We are the smallest school in the upper division, other than Lakeview now that they’re here. I always wondered if we could compete against the big boys and we have the last two years. This is 11 out of the last 23 years we’ve won and it’s still nice.”
Sara Price put on a show scoring the Tigers’ first 13 points as Howland raced out to an early 13-4 lead.
“When I was warming up, I felt like I was on tonight,” Price said. “I was talking to my teammates and they were like, ‘We’re going to get the ball in your hands tonight.’ With that in mind, I knew I had to put the shots up. I knew I had to be on tonight. I put them in when I needed to.”
Price was nearly perfect in the opening frame scoring 16 of her game-high 36 points in the first quarter where the Tigers opened up a 20-10 lead.
With six 3-pointers, Price made like Rappach, who specialized in long-range shots.
“She’s a very special player,” Harding coach Frank Caputo said. “She was on point tonight. Playing for a league championship, senior night — we expected her to come out exactly like she did. She actually played even better than we thought.”
Harding (8-12, 2-10) quickly adjusted out of its normal defense hoping to get the ball out of Price’s hands, but saw Kayla Clark and Alex Ochman pick up the slack scoring six points apiece as Howland took a 41-20 advantage at the half.
“We spread the scoring out, but Frank did put two to three girls on Sara too, which opens everything up,” Diehl said. “The others were able to step up and make their shots.
“Sara does this once or twice a year where she doesn’t miss when she starts. When she starts the game out like that, it’s tough for anyone to beat us.”
Harding’s Toni Donaldson started to find her shot in the third quarter with nine of her team high 22 points in the third quarter, but the Raiders were only able to get within 18 after three.
Howland’s Izzy Albrecht was instrumental on the defensive end holding Kia Allen to zero points through the first three quarters.
Allen came in averaging 16.5 points per game. She finished with six points.
Price concluded her last home game with 12 points in the final quarter as she fell two points short of her career high.
“She’s a little mad at me for not letting her stay in,” Diehl said. “I’ve always been under the philosophy that if you are going to set a record, you’re going to do it in a close game. When we’re up 20 with four minutes to go, we don’t need her getting hurt.”
Price understood.
“When you are up so much, it’s not respectable to beat the record like that,” she said. “A couple of foul shots could have changed it around. I should have put more points in when I had the opportunity. It happens. It is what it is.”