Lady Tigers get conference win over Hot Dogs
Jan. 7—LEBANON — After a nine-day lay-off, the Lebanon Lady Tigers were excited to get back on the court Friday night when they hosted Frankfort in Sagamore Conference action.
The Tigers never trailed in the game, and cruised to a 51-14 victory. The Lady Tigers improved to 7-10 and 3-1 in the conference.
"We needed this win and it was a good, positive win for everybody," Lebanon head coach Candice Huckstep said. "We were able to get a lot of kids in and give them some good minutes. Our girls played with a lot of confidence, and for the first time in a while didn't seem to dwell on mistakes and recovered well. There was a lot of positivity from the girls on the bench too, picking up their teammates."
Coming off the lay-off, the Tigers were a little off with their shooting early, shooting just 4-of-20 in the first quarter, but still led 13-5.
From there though, the Lady Tigers started putting it together, shooting better than 50% over the next 2 1/2 quarters.
Maiya Newsom led the Tigers with nine points, with Riley Vanaman and Alexandria Barr having eight. Claire Boling and Kyle Ottinger had seven.
"Our press really helped us get our offense going," Huckstep said. "We were able to get a lot of deflections and steals and got us into transition. We were rushing and taking quick shots really and getting those steals and deflections led to easy baskets."
The Tigers defense was never an issue all game.
Frankfort scored just five points through the first three quarters, including none in the second or third quarters.
The Hot Dogs had 30 turnovers, and shot just 5-of-26 from the field in the game. The 14 points allowed were the fewest this season.
"Our defense played well," Huckstep said. "There have been some games this year where Frankfort played well early and we made sure we didn't let them get anything easy. We did some really nice things."
Lebanon is now off until next Friday, when they travel to Tri-West.
Huckstep said having just two games in a span of 16 days has given the Lady Tigers a chance to get some good practice time in.
"The first eight weeks of our schedule is kind of crazy and filled with games," Huckstep said. "Now, we get a chance to have three or four practices in a row and really fine tune some things and break down some film. We are cutting back our practice time a bit, and just want them to come in, work hard and go home and stay mentally sharp."
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.
