Bison girls stumble in closing minutes

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook senior Kelsey Pohl (24) tries to shoot over the Hastings defense in girls basketball action at the Senior High gym Saturday evening. The Bison girls came up short trying to gain their first win of the season. [Click to enlarge]

The McCook High School girls came so close to gaining their first victory of the 2009-10 season Saturday, Jan. 16, against Hastings. The Tigers pulled away in the final quarter to top the Bison girls, 57-41.

Saturday's contest at the Senior High gym saw the McCook team stay with Hastings through the first three periods. The Bison saw their hopes for that elusive first win disappear in the closing minutes as McCook was unable to convert at the offensive end.

McCook, 0-16, pulled with 41-39 with just over six minutes left as juniors Laura Brooks and Gretchen Sehnert scored consecutive baskets. But the Bison managed just two more points the rest of the way -- a pair of free throws by sophomore Emilyne Nichols -- and Hastings hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final minutes.

"We missed some shots," McCook head coach Jeff Ellis said about his team's woes late in the contest. "The fourth quarter, we went flat. The girls stopped executing. We had a game plan in the locker room at the half to help create some more things, and the girls went away from what we had talked about. That's what was frustrating, because they played so well for so long.

"It was a two-point ball game, middle of the fourth quarter, we were in it, we were right where we needed to be. Then just for some reason the girls stopped executing offensively. A couple of shots didn't go in, and that always hurts. We missed a couple free throws. Stuff like that that comes with repetitions, comes with experience on the court. You've got to execute those things down the stretch to come out with wins, and to come out with the results you want at the end of the ball game, and that didn't happen for us."

Different teams

For the first three quarters, the Bison girls probably looked like a different team that they had showed in early-season losses. Of course, Hastings didn't play like a team with just two wins entering Saturday's contest.

Freshman Brooklynn Trew hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to pull McCook within 17-14 after one quarter. The Bison got within 19-18 after senior Kelsey Pohl's shot from the lane with just under three minutes left in the first half.

The Tigers stretched the lead to seven points before McCook freshman Rachel Goltl rebounded a missed shot and followed with a bucket to beat the halftime buzzer to get McCook within 29-24.

Hastings led by as many as nine points several times in the third period, but the Bison would not fold. Freshman Megan Ruppert connected ona 3-pointer from the right corner to get McCook within 38-32 with 3:25 left. After a Hastings basket, Sehnert hit another 3-pointer from the right corner, and McCook trailed 40-35 at the quarter break.

Brooks and Sehnert got the Bison within two points early in the final quarter before the offense slumped.

Improved play

Coach Ellis said his inexperienced team turned in an improved effort Saturday, but the Bison have to keep that up all the way to the end of the game in order to have a chance to win.

"We had a lot more shot opportunities tonight," Ellis said. "Part of that is, we executed a little bit better and part of it is, (Hastings) didn't apply a lot of full-court pressure on us. That gave us a chance to get the ball down there, and gave us a chance for some of our girls to move through our motion offense, get through our first or second choices and some girls hit some nice shots. We played a great basketball game for three quarters, and then the fourth quarter came back to get us. We didn't execute down the stretch, and that's unfortunate because the girls played hard, they fought hard.

"In the locker room after the game, I wrote up on the board, did we fight hard? We all said yes -- check. Did we play aggressive? We did, we checked that off. The last question was, did we play very smart down the stretch? They all said no, and I agreed with them. We didn't, and that's what cost us the ball game."

Sehnert scored 12 points and Brooks added 9 to lead McCook. Hastings, 3-10, was led by Lyndsey Frank with 15 points, including four shots from 3-point range.

Learning experience

The McCook coach hopes his team will use Saturday's game as a learning experience, to pay dividends the next time his squad is close to a win.

"We haven't been in very many close games," Ellis said. "The couple close ones that we've been in, we didn't finish, we didn'texecute down the stretch. That comes down to a lack of experience, a lack of knowing on the court what to do, and it showed.

"We're playing young girls out there that we are expecting a lot out of. They are making crucial mistakes at crucial times that are hurting us. But those are things we have to try and overcome and keep the girls encouraged to fight through these mistakes now, because they are going to have this knowledge and this experience down the road in a couple years."

The McCook girls will face Liberal, Kan., Thursday, Jan. 21, in the first round of the Orange and Black Classic in Colby, Kan. Thursday's game is set to begin at 3 p.m. at the Colby Community Center.