Bulldogs ratchet up defense against Warhawks

SHEFFIELD — Trailing 10-4 after the first quarter, the Class 3A No. 13 Bulldog girls basketball team turned up the defensive heat to hold the Warhawks to 22 points the rest of the way in a 57-32 victory at Sheffield.

The visitors struggled from the field in that first quarter and Warhawk senior post Emily Caspers had seven points in that opening eight minutes.

“We tend to struggle when we don’t hit shots to keep our defensive intensity up,” Bulldog coach Miranda Valley said, “and that’s what happened in that situation.

“We couldn’t hit a shot, couldn’t buy a basket and then we start to get a little bit slower defensively and they scored.”

However, after the opening eight minutes, the Bulldogs outscored West Fork 23-2 before halftime and maintained control the rest of the way.

“Part of it was our legs from last night. We played tough with Newman and Newman plays a kind of style of run-and-gun,” West Fork coach Rodney Huber said. “That could have been some of it and some of it was they ratcheted up the pressure and we didn’t handle it very well. I think we had over 30 turnovers.

“I think we scored only two points in the second quarter and took us out of our offense.”

Calista Polk provided a spark off the bench, scoring nine points in the first half to finish with 10. Avery Hanson led the way for the second straight night for the Bulldogs, scoring 14 and Lauren Meader added 11.

“Once we settled in, we finally hit some shots, attacked the basket, got some easy ones and things get a little easier,” Valley said.

Caspers finished the game with just two points the rest of the way, getting just one basket at the 1 minute, 50 second mark in the third quarter.

“We were out-sized most of the night, but the girls did a good job of helping on the backside,” Valley said. “Our guards did a good job of creating havoc and trouble up top to where they couldn’t see her (Caspers).

“You need a full team effort when you’re playing this much.”

It was the intensified defense that provided the difference.

“Their pressure masks some of the half-court stuff,” Huber said. “If we were to beat it, we probably would have gotten some easy ones, but we have inexperience and some of that inexperience led to turnovers and that led to run-outs and it snowballed. We’ll learn from it.”

That pressure and defense did have the Bulldogs in foul trouble as Briana Grover fouled out and two others finished the game with four.

 “We just had to shuffle people through,” Valley said. 

“Give them little breaks out of there when they got frustrated with fouls. Two girls with four (fouls) in the end and one that fouled out, but they did a good job of battling through that.”

Bulldogs 57, West Fork 32

Bulldogs (14-1, 8-1) –Kaci Arjes 2 1-4 7, Alana Johnson 0 0-0 0, Lauren Meader 4 2-2 11, Maci Arjes 1 2-2 4, Calista Polk 3 3-4 10, Courtney Miller 3 0-0 7, Avery Hanson 6 1-2 14, Briana Grover 0 1-2 1, Morgyn Anderson 0 0-0 0, Faith Grover 1 0-0 3. Totals 20 10-16 57.

West Fork (7-9, 7-4)– Makenzie Fessler 1-2 6-8 8, Sydney Nuehring 0-0 0-0 0, Maddie Hubka 1-6 0-0 2, Rylie Akins 1-2 0-0 2, Ellie Weaver 0-5 0-1 0, Madisyn Bonner 0-3 3-4 3, Jen Ingham 0-0 0-0 0, Sadie Latham 0-0 0-0 0, Keelee Sheriff 2-3 1-2 5, Haley Grady 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Martinek 1-5 0-1 2, Kalli Trewin 0-1 0-0 0, Emily Caspers 4-10 1-2 0. Totals 10-37 11-18 32.

H-D               4   23   19   11      -   57

W. Fork      10     2   15     7      -   32

Three-point goals – H-D xx (); WF 1-6 (Akins 1-1, E. Weaver 0-1, Hubka 0-2, Martinek 0-2). Rebounds– H-D, NA; WF 40, 13 off., 27 def. (Caspers 10, Bonner 7, E. Weaver 5, Fessler 4, Sheriff 4, Martinek 4, Akins 3, Hubka, Latham, Grady). Assists– H-D, NA; WF 10 (Fessler 2, Hubka 2, Weaver 2, Latham 2, Akins, Caspers). Steals– H-D, NA; WF 8 (Fessler 2, Hubka 2, Weaver 2, Akins, Ingham, Caspers). Blocks– H-D, NA; WF 4 (Caspers 2, Weaver, Latham). Total fouls– H-D, NA, WF 13. Fouled out – H-D (Grover); WF, None.