By ANDREW FEEBACK
DALEVILLE — At halftime of Tuesday night’s girls’ basketball game, the Southern Wells Raiders found themselves trailing by three.
A strong second half allowed them to prevail over the host Broncos, 47-40.
With her team down at the half even after an impressive start, coach Jessica Killingbeck’s message for her team was simple: be tougher.
“That’s kind of been our message the last couple weeks,” she said. “Being tougher, slowing down. We panicked a little bit, and we talked about catching, turning and facing rather than just catching and dribbling or catching and expecting to throw it middle and it be open. I thought they did a fantastic job of adjusting.”
After the first few minutes, it would have been hard to imagine the Raiders would trail at the half.
Daleville (4-10) missed its first 12 shots, allowing Southern Wells (4-11) to race out to an 11-0 lead.
But once the Broncos got a few shots to drop, the Raiders were in trouble.
Now able to set up their full-court press, the Broncos rushed and frustrated the Raiders into committing 18 turnovers in the first half, many of them near their own basket.
Two quick buckets from Addisyn Gothrup to start the second quarter had the Broncos back within 13-11.
Southern Wells maintained its lead until Gothrup’s three-pointer put Daleville in front for the first time at 19-18.
A triple from Olivia Pratcher and a three-point play from Gothrup had the Broncos up 25-20 before Ashlie Needler’s rebound basket to end the half somewhat stopped the bleeding for the Raiders.
In the second half, the Raiders did a much better job taking care of the ball and finding their way through the press. They had just seven turnovers after intermission.
Some timely three-point shots from senior Karlee Warner helped as well. Her first gave the Raiders a 33-31 lead which they held after three quarters, and her second put the Raiders up 37-34 with five minutes to play.
In addition to better execution, the Raiders also did a much better job slowing down Gothrup, who led all scorers with 18 points, but only scored two in the second half.
“We talked about shading her more so she couldn’t get her shot off,” Killingbeck said. “Rather than have our posts come out and cover corners, we had our wing drop, so we just made an adjustment defensively of how we were going to guard her. I thought Karlee did a fantastic job on her on the wing of getting out and closing out on her.”
Collena Reeves led the Raiders with 13 points, and her consecutive baskets had Southern Wells up 41-36.
Daleville pulled within 41-40 with a minute and a half to play on Modlene Campbell’s layup, but Reeves was fouled in the backcourt and made both of her free throws.
Ashlie Needler’s basket underneath had the Raiders up five before she fouled out moments later.
Foul trouble plagued Needler in this game, but she still finished with eight points and played a key role in helping the Raiders break the full-court press.
“We’ve gotten used to Ashlie being in foul trouble,” Killingbeck said. “We had other people step up tonight. Typically when she goes out of the game in foul trouble for us, we get a little bit stagnant. I felt like Karlee came in and did some really good things for us tonight. That’s what we need to have from her as a senior. She picked it up once Ashlie went out for us.”
Warner joined Reeves in double figures with 10 points.
Even though the Raiders had to play the last 47 seconds without Needler, the Broncos missed all four of their shot attempts in that stretch, preventing them from having an opportunity to set up their press.
Reeves’s free throws finished the scoring, and the Raiders grabbed a hard-earned win.
No junior varsity game was played.
Southern Wells will host South Adams on Friday night.
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SOUTHERN WELLS 47,
DALEVILLE 40
At Daleville
SOUTHERN WELLS (4-11): Erika Beavans 0-1 0-0 0, Kaylea Coffel 2-2 1-2 6, Aubree Meyer 1-5 0-0 2, Collena Reeves 3-5 7-9 13, Gracie Reeves 1-3 0-0 2, Kenzie Paxson 1-5 2-2 4, Breanna Leidig 0-0 0-0 0, Kyah Thomas 1-7 0-0 2, Karlee Warner 4-11 0-0 10, Ashlie Needler 5-13 0-1 8. TOTALS: 17-52 10-14 47.
DALEVILLE (4-10): Makenna Corbin 1-4 1-2 3, Isabelle Williams 2-15 3-4 7, Valyn Pattengale 0-0 0-0 0, Nichole Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Annystnne Shields 0-0 0-0 0, Olivia Pratcher 3-11 0-0 7, Addisyn Gothrup 7-19 2-4 18, Emma Voss 0-0 0-0 0, Modlene Campbell 2-6 1-2 5. TOTALS: 15-55 7-12 40.
Southern Wells 13 9 11 14 — 47
Daleville 7 18 6 9 — 40
Three-point Field Goals: Southern Wells 3-20 (Warner 2-6, Coffel 1-1, Thomas 0-5, Collena Reeves 0-2, Gracie Reeves 0-2, Meyer 0-2, Needler 0-1, Beavans 0-1), Daleville 3-17 (Gothrup 2-11, Pratcher 1-3, Williams 0-3). Rebounds: Southern Wells 36 (Needler 14, Collena Reeves 10, Gracie Reeves 4, Paxson 4, Beavans 3, Warner 1), Daleville 28 (Pratcher 8, Campbell 6, Williams 4, Gothrup 4, Voss 3, Corbin 3). Turnovers: Southern Wells 25, Daleville 24. Fouls: Southern Wells 11, Daleville 18. Fouled out: Needler. Technicals: None.
