Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The DeKalb County Lady Tigers battled back after falling behind early in the fourth quarter, but fell just short in a 65-58 loss to Warren County.
The two teams battled back-and-forth in the first quarter, as an Avery Agee three gave the Lady Tigers a 13-12 lead heading into the second.
The second quarter proved to be the difference in the game, as Warren County knocked down seven threes and outscored DeKalb 29-16 to take a 41-29 lead into halftime.
It was the only quarter where the Lady Tigers were outscored, as they cut into the lead in the third by winning the frame 16-11. This added up to a 52-45 lead for the Lady Pioneers heading into the all-decisive fourth.
A three by Madison Martin tied the game at 58, but the Lady Tigers failed to score again after that, as Warren scored the final seven points of the game en route to a 65-58 victory.
Ella VanVranken led the way for DeKalb County with 23 points, while Kadee Ferrell added a 15-point, 15-rebound double-double for head coach Danny Fish.
“We won every quarter but the second, and I thought we did a bad job in transition defense,” Fish said. “I liked what our team did, it just came down to three possessions there at the end…we had a couple bad turnovers, and that’s all she wrote, especially against good teams.”
The turnovers were a consistent, nagging presence on Thursday, but Fish was quick to point out that at this point in the season, there’s no time to worry about it. All his team could do was grow.
“When you make mistakes, you have to understand what the mistake is to correct it,” Fish said. “We like to get up and down the floor, but sometimes, that isn’t the answer…there at the end of the game was a time to slow it down, and we’re still learning how to do that. Possessions have to be valued throughout the game.”
The Tigers got off to a good start against the Pioneers, but a bad third quarter led to a 58-52 win for Warren County on Thursday.
Things looked good early for the home team, as they jumped out to a 14-5 lead. Warren County scored the last two buckets of the period and cut the lead down to 14-9 heading into the second.
Warren County cut into the lead further in the second, and took a brief 25-22 lead, but DeKalb seemingly got back on track and scored the last eight points of the frame to take a 30-27 lead into the halftime break.
The third was where the Pioneers did most of their damage, as they went on a 14-2 run to open the quarter and outscored the Tigers 17-6 overall to take a 44-36 lead into the final frame.
DeKalb battled to get back into the game, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Pioneers left Smithville on Thursday with a 58-52 win over John Sanders’ squad.
“We just let them get to the rim too much,” Sanders said. “You just can’t let them get to the rim and get open layups like they did…we weren’t very patient on offense, that was what we were wanting to do.”
The next week is a big one for the Tigers, as they will take on Cumberland County and Upperman.
“We’ve just got to be tougher defensively, and more patient offensively,” Sanders said. “We let teams dictate what we do offensively, and take too quick a shots and rush sometimes…we don’t show patient when we need to, when other teams go on run. Hopefully we get better at that between now and then. If not, we won’t be playing much longer.”
DeKalb will host Cumberland County on Tuesday, beginning at 6 P.M.
