Iron still acting unkind to Tallmadge girls basketball squad
Shooting woes have doomed the Tallmadge girls basketball team all season.
Last week was no different in tight defeats to Louisville and Suburban League American Conference rival Barberton, both at James O. Maddox Court. With a little bit better shooting, those two losses could have been victories.
The Blue Devils dropped to 2-10 overall and 2-6 in the American Conference.
“We struggle shooting the basketball,” a frustrated Tallmadge head coach Joe Leonard said. “Every game, we’re well below what we should have. We spend a lot of time shooting, but we’re just struggling shooting for sure.”
The loss to Louisville came on Jan. 15 by a 41-35 score. Tallmadge trailed 7-5 after one quarter, 17-10 at halftime and 32-22 after three quarters before rallying in the fourth quarter only to come up short.
“Louisville is a very good team, fundamentally sound,” said Leonard. “We played a zone defense against them and really packed it in because they have some post players who are very skilled. It worked. I mean, we really held them in check offensively. We just couldn’t get anything going offensively, couldn’t get any shots to fall.”
Pacing the home team was sophomore guard/forward Lexi Gray, who scored 12 points, including two three-pointers, and had two rebounds. Guard Ashlyn Severns, Gray’s classmate, had eight points, including a pair of three-pointers, four rebounds and three steals.
“Lexi played very solid defense and did a nice job rebounding the ball as well,” Leonard said. “Ashlyn did a very nice job defensively rebounding the ball against a much taller team.”
The loss to Barberton was on Jan. 19 by a 33-28 count. Tallmadge was down 9-5 after the first quarter and 21-9 at the half before rallying again to close the gap to 25-19 after the third quarter.
“We got within two points in the fourth quarter but then just could not knock down open shots,” said the coach. “We definitely played better in the second half with more energy. Offensively, we did a little bit better but still really struggled shooting. We started to press Barberton and definitely got in the game. We played great defense again. You hold somebody to 33 points, that’s pretty good.”
Junior guard Maya Dexter scored eight points, while Severns contributed seven points.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Iron still acting unkind to Tallmadge girls basketball squad
