Early lead, rebounds give Bloomington North girls big win over Owen Valley

Giving up 138 points in road losses at Columbus East and Southport last week didn't sit well with the Bloomington North girls' basketball team.

The next team the Cougars' play this week will have to score 110 to reach that same figure.

North got started in great fashion Tuesday against Owen Valley, jumping up 17-3 just five minutes in as OV committed a turnover on its first six possessions. North added a 9-0 spurt in the second quarter and polished it off with a 16-point run in the third that triggered the running clock, blowing out the Patriots, 60-28 at the Cougar Den.

"It was something where, we looked at our play last week," North coach Jeff Turmail said. "I think we kind of let ourselves down defensively and everybody responded to it in a major way.

"Just our ability to do the little things on defense was probably our biggest discussion going into it and everybody did an amazing job doing the little things on defense. I don't know how many great, great looks they got throughout the night in the half-court."

On the other hand, the Cougars (6-3) were constantly scoring in the paint, off drives, rebounds, steals, post moves and turnaround jumpers. All too often it was quick, especially in the third when North got going end-to-end with little resistence.

North had another balanced night offensively, with Mia Robbennolt having 16 points, with 12 each for Kenli Sullivan and Ava Reitmeyer and 11 from Mallory Barrow off the bench. They were 22-of-37 shooting combined.

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"Every stop is really helpful to get us going offensively," Turmail said. "I thought we did well in transition offensively and our transition defense was better tonight against Owen Valley than we saw last week."

The "little things" Turmail was talking about helped hold Owen Valley (4-6) to 31% shooting and forced many of the 19 turnovers, with Kenli Sullivan recording three steals.

"We had talked a lot about gap help, just keeping things out of the middle," Turmail said. "Not give up ball-side cuts. I thought we did a tremendous job trying to keep (leading scorer forward Reagan Martin) from getting any looks inside. The way we were able to front throughout the night frustrated them offensively, just sticking to the game plan leading into the game. On-ball pressure, we did a great job."

Down 28-10 halfway through the second quarter, it was all uphill from there.

"With their style of play and length, very quick, we knew we had to be very sharp with it," OV coach Trace Temples said. "We had to meet passes. It was just who was making the pass, it was who was receiving it. A times tonight, it looked like we were playing on our heels a little bit. That's how you get down early."

Tough run for Patriots

Starting with a game against Eastern Greene, OV's faced a challenging run of teams. It included a Bloomfield team that's tough to score on, a trip to undefeated 2A No. 8 Linton that's even tougher defensively (OV had just 15 points), then back home to face WIC favorite 3A No. 3 Indian Creek and IU recruit Faith Wiseman. A bus ride to Monrovia the night after that, resulted in a disappointing 42-38 loss. More trouble awaits Friday at Brown County.

So the 1-5 stretch they find themselves in is a time to grow or shrink with the season now half over.

"We've had a stretch here the past couple of weeks that's been pretty tough," Temples said. "Tonight, we knew what to expect when we came over here. Bloomington North is a solid team. Athletic. We knew that we couldn't get down early, because if that was the case, then we were going to be in a bad spot.

"But give them credit. Our kids are still learning how to do things and to compete for four quarters. We want to see continued progress throughout the year. The biggest thing is to get them to understand that we have a lot of basketball left."

North, with its length advantage, did a strong job of keeping OV's leading scorer Martin in check. The 6-foot senior finished with eight points, while Madi Kay led the way with 10 points. The Patriots were just 11-of-35 and hit just one shot in the first 10:15 of the second half.

Second chances for North

North ended up scoring 40 points in the paint and a big chunk of those came off the 14 offensive rebounds the Cougars' grabbed. They won the glass 33-17, led by point guard Avery Patterson with six. The trio of Sullivan, Reitmeyer and Mia Robbennolt had five each. North ended up 25-of-49 from the field.

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"I don't think we've been out-rebounded defensively yet (this season)," Turmail said. "But we had a game last week where we had four offensive rebounds, so we limited ourselves offensively. Getting those extra shots, I don't know what our second-chance points were but that's another big thing for us."

The other chunk came in transition and nowhere was that more evident than in the game-sealing 20-3 run that covered most of the third period. Whether off a rebound or turnover, the Cougars were headed the other way in a hurry and repeatedly beat OV down the floor. It ballooned a 34-16 halftime lead into a 54-19 advantage, kicking in the running clock for the remainder.

North was 9-of-14 in the period and cleaned up every miss. OV did not grab its first rebound of the second half until 6:39 of the fourth.

"Our message at halftime was: make sure we get better," Temples said. "Can we get back in this game? Yes, but the most important thing is make sure that when we walk out of here, we're a better team.

"I felt like there in that third quarter, we relaxed and they punched again. And when they did, we didn't respond well. Give credit to them. They crashed the glass, they worked to their game plan and we didn't."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 'Bloomington North Cougars top Owen Valley in girls' basketball