Sweet Home girls hoops drop league games

Sweet Home's varsity girls basketball team can blame itself for losing both of its league games last week.

Inconsistency combined with poor shooting resulted in road losses at Frontier, 55-43, last Tuesday and at Clarence, 64-51, last Friday.

Tied with Frontier at 26-26 at halftime, the Lady Panthers were outscored 14-3 in the third quarter.

"Our third quarter was simply disappointing," said Sweet Home coach Matt LaRoach. "We just didn't make plays when we needed to. Turnovers, missed shots, and missed rebounds caused us to fall behind. Everyone had their opportunities to step up and we struggled."

"Going into the game, I expected this one to be a tough contest," LaRoach continued. "Frontier has good shooters on their team and they got hot and knocked down the shots when they needed to. We started the game with the lead and were tied at halftime. I knew we didn't play our best basketball but were in a good position to win the game.... In the fourth quarter, we came out with some fire in us and we started to make a run but we were never able to cut it to less than nine points."

Ellie Allen led all scorers with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Kiaya Burks scored 12 points and grabbed 21 rebounds, and Amanda Cannizzo scored 10 points.

Frontier was led by Danita Edwards and Caitlin Johnson's 12 points each.

"We need to be consistent and play four strong quarters night in and night out," said LaRoach. "This loss is disappointing after such a strong win last Thursday over Lancaster. Our league is too strong that on any given night the teams in ECIC I are going to compete and we have to be ready and up for the challenge."

A poor first quarter ended any chances of Sweet Home beating Clarence. The Lady Red Devils outscored Sweet Home, 23-10, in the first quarter and extended the lead to 35-18 at halftime. Sweet Home outscored Clarence in the second half but the damage was already done.

"Our slow start was the death of us," said LaRoach. "It is not acceptable to give up 23 points in a quarter. To be outscored 23-10 is not going to put any team in a position to win a ball game and that caused us to play catch up basketball for the rest of the game. Give Clarence credit. They came out on fire. It seemed everything that they threw up was going in and every ball seemed to fall in their hands. At the half, we talked about our defense and we made some adjustments and played a much better second half."

Allen led Sweet Home with 14 points and six assists. Coretta Davis scored 14 points. Cannizzo scored 11. Clarence was led by Brianna Nemmer's 21 points.

Sweet Home (4-4, 5-8) hosts Jamestown at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

LaRoach said his team needs to get back to basics.

"We need to get back to some of our basics and fundamentals and reinforce what we are good at which is our intensity, defense, and fundamentals," he said. "We have a lot of practice time over the next two weeks and we need it right now as we prepare for some upcoming league games. I believe in this team. We have a lot of potential. It is now a matter of playing consistent basketball for four full quarters on a nightly basis. The girls need to understand that everyone has a role on the team and that every one of them needs to excel at their individual role to help the team succeed."