Second-half surge sends Meadowbrook past Coshocton

COSHOCTON — It wasn't a razor-sharp performance, but Chris Miles had minimal complaints.

Meadowbrook's girls basketball coach saw host team have trouble shaking underdog Coshocton in the first half, as the hosts did just enough offensively to stay within striking distance.

The second half was another matter.

The Colts scored on their first possessions and blew the game open with an 11-2 run en route to a 61-33 win in the Muskingum Valley League-Small School Division on Wednesday night at The Wigwam.

Coshocton (0-7, 0-5 MVL-Small) was within 17-11 after a quarter and 21-15 after Myrakle Johnson hit a 3 with 3:33 left in the second, but the Redskins didn't score from the field again until Savannah Bartley converted a three-point play with 2:17 left in the third quarter.

By then, the Colts (3-2 MVL-Small) had rattled off 26 of 31 points to build a 47-20 lead, with four players contributing points.

Five players scored in the third quarter, including two 3-pointers from point guard Maddie May and another from winger Jostalyn Hunt. That came after Kenli Norman scored 10 points in the first half, including two 3s in the first, with seven more coming in the third.

The lead reached as many as 34 before both teams emptied their benches.

"We haven't put a game together yet," Miles said, who lamented his team's play in the first quarter. "I think we are going to be pretty good once we do. Right now we have to get healthy. That's the key for us."

The Colts are missing three varsity players in Taylor Sichina, Layken Lasko and Emma Webster.

"And it makes it a little bit rough," Miles said. "But all and all we ran the court. We're trying to push the pace. We had a couple of breakdowns defensively — I thought we might be able to cause a little bit more stress with our press. But to their credit they kept their composure and they caused us some problems in the first quarter."

Post player Kaylynn Gombeda was among the Colts who thrived in transition. Both of her baskets in the third quarter were off the break, part of a 10-point effort. Hunt also had 10.

"Kaylynn did a good job of rebounding the basketball," Miles said. "We missed a lot of bunnies tonight. It must be in our heads at this point. We missed probably eight at New Lex last Saturday, and that was a game that was a two-point game with two-minutes to go.

"My girls work so hard in the weight room in the offseason," Miles added. "We traveled all over the state playing teams. It's just different. We can make mistakes and be sloppy and still beat people, and it hasn't been that case for us for a decade."

Miles is excited to see what his team can do at full strength, especially defensively. His team already played division-leader New Lexington close into the fourth quarter before the veteran Panthers pulled away.

"There is not a game on our schedule that I don't think we can compete in," Miles said. "It has been a long time since we could say that. ... There are no more moral victories."

Coshocton coach Paul Bowman has seen his team struggle to find ways to win in close games. On Wednesday his team struggled to solve the Colts' 1-3-1 zone, in addition to its press, especially in the third quarter.

Bartlett finished with a game-high 17 points, but no other Redskin scored more than six points. The Skins had 14 turnovers in the second and third quarters combined.

He lamented his team's struggles to convert around the basket, especially when the game was still in question. After pulling within 17-13 in the second quarter, they missed 13 of their next 14 shots.

"We did the same thing tonight that we did against West M," Bowman said. "That first half could have easily been a couple-of-points game going into the second half, and we don't make some shots, we don't finish, we weren't physical enough. We weren't in a stance around the bucket. ... We were still only five or six points behind."

It was an example of the team's frustration in surpassing the hurdle of getting the lead against the MVL's top teams. They have three losses by less than eight points.

"We just can't get over that hump," Bowman said. "They came out in that third quarter, punched us in the mouth and we didn't respond."

Meadowbrook took the reserve game, 46-12, behind 14 points from Randi Stevens.

sblackbu@gannett.com; Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Second-half surge sends Meadowbrook girls past Coshocton