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Bison girls snap losing skid
Just what the doctor ordered.
If McCook girls head basketball coach Jeff Ellis was a physician, he knew the perfect prescription for his team's ills heading into the Friday, Jan. 13 home game against Hastings.
Ellis and his team found the right medicine -- a 44-30 win over the Tigers that snapped McCook's six-game losing streak.
The Bison girls did not play a perfect game, but a strong start and a good finish plus heavy doses of Emilyne Nichols and Kassidy Gillen were the cure to McCook's funk.
Nichols, the lone senior on the Bison girls roster, led all scorers with 16 points, and she also grabbed 7 rebounds and had a team-high 4 steals. The 5-9 forward tallied six points in the first quarter to help stake McCook to a 15-3 lead at the end of the opening period. Nichols scored 10 points in the second half to help the Bison keep reminding the Tigers that their recovery from a 22-14 halftime deficit was not in the diagnosis.
"Emilyne is our best player; she's our leader," Coach Ellis said after Friday's big win. "She kind of took charge tonight. I've been hard on her of late, being a better leader for us. I thought she did a great job tonight leading."
Gillen, a 5-10 junior center, has sat out several games this season due to a back problem. But she looked in top form Friday with 10 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
"Kassidy had her best game of the year," Ellis said. "She gave us 10 points and she had to be close to 10 rebounds. I'm proud of Kassidy, because she's been dealing with some back injuries, and I've been riding her pretty hard, just wanting more out of her and expecting more out of her, and she gave us what we wanted tonight. I'm proud of Kassidy."
After a strong first quarter, the Bison attack slowed in the second period, scoring only 7 points to 11 for the Tigers. Ellis said Hastings switched to a zone defense in the second quarter, and his team became "complacent" on offense.
"We were two or three steps slow," Ellis said. "We can't play like that. We've got to play faster than what we are because sometimes, to be honest with you, we are just a little slow-footed. That was the case in that second quarter.
"Then we found some ways to overcome that. Emilyne had a great basketball game."
Big offensive rebounds
Nichols was a big part of a McCook spurt late in the third quarter. Hastings cut the lead to 26-21 with 2:25 left. McCook then outscored the Tigers 6-2, as the Bison scored all three baskets -- two by Nichols -- on putbacks following three consecutive offensive rebounds. Brenleigh Daum got the other field goal in the Bison spree, and the McCook defense set up two of the scoring opportunities with steals.
"Those are the things that you have to have night-in and night-out, especially since we still struggled shooting the ball tonight," Ellis said.
Gillen scored on a nifty spin move on the low block early in the final period to increase McCook's lead to 34-23. Hastings could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
The Tigers were led by Zoey Mays with 7 points. Briton Thomas, a 6-3 senior center for Hastings, did not score a field goal and was held to 2 points for the game.
Rachel Goltl added 6 points for the Bison, while Molly Sughroue and Brooklynn Trew chipped in 4 points each.
McCook hit just 7 of 12 free throws, while Hastings was 17 of 32 at the line. Coach Ellis said the team and Bison individuals strive to shoot 60 percent at the line every game. He also knows the Bison have to start making more 3-point field goals -- McCook made just 1 of 11 attempts beyond the 3-point arc.
"Our 'threes' still aren't going in for us," he said. "We shoot a million 'threes' in practice and in games, so we've got to have more of those going in. I don't think it's that we're tired. The shots are short. We're not finishing and getting up underneath our shots like we were at the beginning of the year."
McCook shot just 31 percent from the floor.
Orange & Black momentum
The victory was a welcome cure for the Bison girls losing streak. McCook had not tasted a win since a Dec. 28, 2011 54-32 decision over Norfolk in the first round of the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament. Coach Ellis hopes his squad gets a boost entering the tough Orange & Black Tournament this week in Colby, Kan.
"This taste of victory here, I would love to see for that carry over to the tournament," Ellis said, "to get us right back to where we were at the beginning of the year -- draining shots from all over, high-powered offense, to go along with maybe some our new aggressiveness, new mindset on the defensive end.
"The reason we won this ball game tonight was because of a little bit different mindset and our defensive outlook going into this game. Our defense has to be our best offense. I thought our defense was a little bit better than it has been in the last couple games."
The Bison girls, 5-9, open the Orange & Black Tournament Thursday, Jan. 19, against Holcomb, Kan. at 4:45 p.m. at the Colby High School gym.