Here's how SHG, Southeast pulled off wins to open City Tournament
Sacred Heart-Griffin's 44-26 win over Springfield High on Wednesday in the City Tournament opener was the epitome of team basketball, both offensively and defensively.
It was in no small part due to lessons learned in a 56-51 loss to the same Senators back in December.
The Cyclones’ girls basketball team carries a 10-game winning streak into Friday’s matchup against top-seeded Southeast in the second round of the City Tournament at the BOS Center before Saturday’s final round against Lanphier on Saturday.
“One small step and that’s what we told the girls,” SHG coach Steve Klunick said. “It’s not even close to the championship. It’s the next game.”
Defensive juggernaut
The SHG defense forced 12 Springfield High turnovers and used several live-ball miscues to race out to a 25-12 halftime lead.
“I thought we had too many turnovers early,” SHS coach Brad Scheffler said. “We just turned it over way too much and they got going. We started out, we talked about trying to go back door and did that well, got a couple of baskets and then we turned it over and it led to their transitions and easy baskets for them.”
No. 2 Springfield High (12-12 overall, 7-6 Central State Eight Conference, 0-1 City) had eight turnovers in the first half. That’s the type of defense Klunick wants his team to play.
“Our focus turned to defense and the girls really bought in and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Klunick said. “It was a great defensive effort. It’s been this good for a couple of weeks.”
After Springfield High took a quick 4-0 lead, No. 3 SHG (19-5, 11-2, 1-0) went on an 11-1 run to close the opening quarter with Reese Watson and Izzy Hassebrock getting back-to-back transition layups off of Senators’ turnovers.
“We call them deadly turnovers,” Scheffler said. “I’d rather at least throw the ball out of bounds and at least guard somebody instead of handing it to them and they go down and shoot a layup on the other end. It’s frustrating but we’ve had these nights where we look like this and the next night, we play great. It happens with this group right now.”
Well-rounded offense from the Cyclones
No SHG player scored more than eight points — Callie Huston, Hassebrock and Sophie Murphy all finished with eight — but the Cyclones didn’t have a scorer with fewer than Caroline Lambert’s six points. Reese Watson and Maggie Fleischli each had seven.
“We tend to share the ball, we’ve got a lot of girls that can score and now they’re all playing defense,” Klunick said.
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It’s the ideal outcome of the SHG offense when all players are moving without the ball, screening, posting up and constantly running its opponents ragged.
“That has been more of a struggle than the defense this year,” Klunick said. “The girls are young and some of the young girls are just getting acclimated to motion and stuff and they’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season.”
Huston said her team was ready for Springfield High this time.
“The first time they beat us, it was a personal loss,” Huston said. “It’s always a big game, SHG versus SHS. Because of that, we really saw our flaws and what we needed to work on and doubled down on that and it paid off.”
SHG outscored Springfield High in every quarter but Klunick said he never was able to feel comfortable until the final horn.
“They never quit. Brad, obviously, will be in the hall of fame someday,” Klunick said. “He’s just an awesome coach so it’s nice just to eke out a win.”
In second game: Spartans run away
The second game might have been a No. 1 seed against the No. 4 seed, but Lanphier held the tournament’s top seed close in the first half.
But it was all Southeast in the second half.
Marisa Gant scored 14 points — the most in the opening day of the tournament — as Southeast topped Lanphier 41-23 in the second game. She also led the No. 1 Spartans with seven rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Diamond Walker — who had eight points — Zaria Watson and Chloe Crawford combined for 21 points for the Spartans (8-14, 6-6, 1-0 City).
Southeast outscored Lanphier 25-11 in the second half.
“A couple more girls played with more confidence,” Southeast coach Mike Collins said. “Chloe made some shots and that helped out. Just a little more fluid as far as making more shots.”
A’Jah Furdge led Lanphier (2-18, 0-12, 0-1) with eight points.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: SHG's balanced effort, Southeast's second half lead to wins in City opener
