Twinsburg girls basketball learning how to win games

Finishing games and becoming better at defending will help the Twinsburg girls basketball team this season as the club approaches the midway point of the regular season.

There have been some recent games that the Tigers have been in a position to win.

Twinsburg first-year head coach Ryan Looman knows that finishing games and learning how to win are things that his young club will improve on.

Nordonia is another team in the Suburban League National Conference that has its program in a transition phase as the Knights (2-7) were hit hard by graduation.

The Knights, 2-3 in the league this season, beat Twinsburg down the stretch for a 42-39 win in recent action.

“In the second half our effort on the defensive end lapsed at times and we found ourselves in a situation where we needed to change up the pace of the game and go to some more pressure-based looks,” explained Looman. “I was happy that we led after three quarters, but I think the biggest learning experience for our kids is knowing that we can never have a possession or two where we don’t give maximum effort because that allows your opponent to stick around.”

“We put Nordonia at the foul line way too many times and any time you look at the scorebook and see 24 attempts for your opponent in a close game, it usually doesn’t end up well.”

Once again, Looman saw some great learning opportunities for the Tigers (4-6, 1-4).

“The team continued to fight and put ourselves in a position to win it at the end of the game,” noted the coach. “In the process of getting to where we want to be, learning how to finish games will come and I am confident that as the season goes on these close games will start to turn out a little different.”

Nordonia’s top returner from last year, senior guard Jensen Stehlik, was fouled in a tie game (39-39) with 50.6 seconds left and converted the front end of a one-and-one free throw.

Down by one, Twinsburg’s freshman forward Kayla Cellura had a nice driving shot attempt that didn’t fall with 36 ticks left.

Another standout Tiger freshman – guard Taylor Dye – attempted a driving shot in some traffic, but Twinsburg was forced to foul after the missed shot.

Stehlik faced a double bonus at the charity stripe with 16.0 seconds and she drilled both of them. Twinsburg was called for travelling on its next possession.

Overall, the Tiger’s defense has been strong this winter, which is encouraging.

“We knew going into the game that Nordonia was a team who is better than their record shows and they have some losses to some pretty good basketball teams and we knew it would take a 32-minute game in order to win,” stressed Looman. “That being said I was proud of our effort and fight for the entirety.”

“Our girls played really well early in the game, dealing with their pressure and getting a lot of good looks at the hoop,” added the coach. “Defensively, we knew we had to slow down some of their guards and not let them get too many open looks from the perimeter. We executed that plan really well to take a halftime lead.”

Cellura had 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor to pace the team. Cellura had four steals.

“Kayla played a great game and our three guards - Abby Caroll, Taylor Dye, and Mackenzie Sweeney were really good leading us offensively and stepping up defensively late in the game to force some turnovers,” expressed Looman.

Senior post Genesis Carthen scored nine points along with Dye. Dye had six rebounds and Carthen snagged five.

Another freshman guard, Sweeney, stood out defensively. She tallied five points, three thefts, and eight deflections as she was disruptive on defense.

Carroll, a senior point guard, added two points and had only one turnover.

Senior forward Lauren Glessman added two points and dished out two assists along with Carroll and Carthen. Carroll, Dye and freshman wing Riley Velican each had two steals.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Twinsburg girls basketball plays hard in loss to Nordonia