The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Gugliotta nets 1,000th as Lady Warriors scalp Pike Central, 59-23 By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net North Knox senior Maria Gugliotta scored 10 of her game-high 15 points in the first quarter as the Lady Warriors routed host Pike Central 59 -23 in a high school girls' basketball game on Saturday, Nov. 30. Gugliotta, who entered the contest with 994 career points, recorded her 1,000th on a free throw with 4:43 left in the first period. "She's a four-year varsity player and she's got good size and can play in and out," Lady Charger head coach Randy Graham said after his team slipped to 0-5. "We knew she was six points from a thousand, so they were going to go at her early. She's just a load inside." "We did the best we could, but the biggest problem for us was just, offensively, we couldn't get into anything," Graham added. "We didn't run any plays all night. We were just really out of synch." North Knox (3-1) outscored Pike Central 14-0 in the first period, then on a three-point play by senior Lauren Charlton and a free throw by junior Madison Utt extended its lead to 180 with 5:57 left in the second period. After missing their first 12 field goal attempts, going 0 -for-4 from the free throw line and turning the ball over 11 times, the Lady Chargers finally got on the scoreboard when sophomore Samantha Halbrader hit a pair of foul shots with HTell City Continued from page B-1 Emma Kohnert and a pair of free throws by senior forward Logan Flannagan, outscored the Lady Chargers 52 to extend its lead to 20-10 with 5:59 left in the first half. Back-to-back baskets by freshman guard/forward Cheyanna Padgett and sophomore forward/center Samantha Halbrader cut the deficit to 20-14 with 4:52 remaining in the second period. The Lady Marksmen then rolled off seven straight points, including four by Hayes, to stretch their lead to 27-14 with 3:07 left in the first half. Pike Central responded with six consecutive points on a three-pointer by Howes and a free throw and basket by Padgett to pull to within 27-20 before Tell City sophomore guard Celina Snyder hit a pair of free throws to give the Lady Marksmen a 29-20 halftime lead. During the first half, Tell City made 10 of 25 field goal attempts, a 40 percent average, and hit nine of 17 free throws while turning the ball over just six times. "Early on, we felt like we could pressure them and we didn't do a very good job pressuring," Graham said. "We were very token, or played like we were playing very token, and they just beat us in transition and got (Gentry) some touches on the block uncontested. So we shot ourselves in the foot with those." "And then the fouls early put them at the free throw line," Graham added. "A lot of those were just us playing poorly in our pressure defense." A basket by Hayes, off an assist by Kohnert, extended Tell City's lead to 31-20 with 6:20 left in the third period, extend their lead to 39-7 with 5:14 left in the third period. "They're just one of those teams that if you focus on all the perimeter players, Gugliotta's going to really hurt you on the inside, and if you spend a lot of time on her, the outside kids can get going," Graham said. "So they've got good balance with their team and a lot of senior leadership. A lot of them are three- and four-year varsity players so they've got a lot of experience. We just didn't respond well." North Knox never led by fewer than 29 points the rest of the game. "We just wanted to come out and try to win the third quarter and establish some things," Graham said. "The first half, the scoring wasn't very good for us. We didn't shoot the ball well. Defensively, we didn't think we played really bad other than there were two baseline outof-bounds plays I felt like we gave up an uncontested three. But, outside of that, we did some good things." "But, just offensively, we Pike Central sophomore Samantha Halbrader couldn't do anything," Gra(5) reacts after her shot is blocked by North Knox ham added. "But we didn't senior Maria Gugliotta (31) during game action run anything. We didn't on Saturday, Nov. 30. Ed Cahill photo. run any plays. We didn't do 5:38 remaining in the first get, however, as back-to- a very good job of coming to half. back three-pointers by Vieck the ball. So we've got a lot Baskets by freshman and senior Mason Buckthal of things to work on there." Halbrader led Pike CenCheyanna Padgett and Hal- sparked a 12-1 scoring run tral with five points and brader, sandwiched around that stretched North Knox's eight rebounds. Four Laa free throw by Lady War- lead to 31-7 at halftime. rior sophomore Lexi Vieck, The Lady Warriors then dy Chargers, senior Emipulled Pike Central to with- scored the first eight points ly Howes, junior Kimberin 19-6 with 3:24 left in the of the second half, on a ly McCammon, sophomore three-pointer by Charlton Alyx Abbott and freshman second quarter. That would be the closest and a basket and a three- Cheyanna Padgett, added See 1,000th on B-5 the Lady Chargers would point play by Gugliotta, to but the Lady Chargers, on a free throw and a basket by sophomore guard Alyx Abbott, cut the deficit to 31-23 with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter. After Flannagan hit a free throw, Halbrader scored off an assist by Abbott to pull the Lady Chargers to within 32-25. The Lady Marksmen would stretch their lead to as many as 11 points, at 4029 before Richardson buried a three-pointer with 4:09 left in the fourth period to cut the deficit to 40-32. After four free throws in as many attempts by Howes offset baskets by Gentry and Flannagan, Tell City extended its lead back to 10, at 46-36 before Richardson hit her second straight threepointer, pulling Pike Central to within 46-39 with 2:06 remaining. A pair of free throws by sophomore guard Brenee Leibering stretched the Lady Marksmen's lead to 48-39 with 1:20 left, but back-toback baskets by Padgett and McCammon pulled the Lady Chargers to within 48-43 with 38 seconds remaining. That would be as close as Pike Central would get, however, as Snyder and Richardson both hit one of two tries from the charity stripe in the game's final half-minute. "If we hit a few shots or we come out a little more aggressive early and not so passive in our pressure defense, and not give up those easy bunnies at the start, it might be a different game," Graham said. "We made some good adjustments on defending their high-low in the second half and did some good things. We've just got to finish." Howes hit three of 12 field goal attempts including two of six tries from beyond the three-point arc, and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line to lead the Lady Char- Pike Central freshman Cheyanna Padgett (22) shoots over Tell City sophomore Brenee Leibering (14). Ed Cahill photo. Pike Central senior Emily Howes (4) puts up a shot over Tell City junior Kassidie Hayes (54) during game action on Tuesday, Nov. 26. Ed Cahill photo. gers with 12 points. She also grabbed six rebounds and blocked four shots. Richardson made four of 11 field goal attempts including two of four tries from three-point range, while scoring 11 points. "There were a couple of times she was right in front of the bench and she thought about it and she was looking to pass and I said, 'Shoot it,' and she hit both of them," Graham said of Richardson, who also dished out three assists. "I always want the kids to have that confidence. They just have to step up and knock them down, and she's very capable of doing that." Padgett came off the bench to score seven points, grab six rebounds and block one shot while dishing out a pair of assists. McCammon had a team-high three steals. For the game, the Lady Chargers made 16 of 53 field goal attempts, a 30.2 percent average, and hit eight of 12 tries from the free throw line while turning the ball over 12 times. "Three out of four games, we've just shot the ball very poorly and, yet, we've been able to compete, just by how hard we've been playing," Graham said. "I've had young teams over the years that have not responded well to these things, and this group has. They've really responded well and they're fighting. We've just got to learn how to win. We've got to put it all together and hit shots and keep kids on the floor and pull out a win." "The kids have not quit and they have played extremely hard," Graham added. "I feel like they're being very coachable. We've got to be able to hit shots and we've had kids in foul trouble, it seems like, every night, so we've not been able to keep kids on the floor. We're not getting a lot of points inside or in the post yet, and we feel like we've got some kids we can get the ball to, but we're going to have to find a way to get them the ball and try to play a little more from the inside out and get some easy buckets, because we're just not shooting the ball very well." Flannagan paced Tell City with 13 points while Gentry and Hayes added 10 and 9 points, respectively. Hayes also had a gamehigh eight rebounds while blocking three shots, and Snyder came off the bench to lead the Lady Marksmen with five assists and three steals. Wednesday, December 4, 2013 B-3 standings high school Boys' Basketball Pocket Athletic Conference Standings PACAll Team W-LW-L Forest Park 0-0 0-1 Gibson So. 0-0 0-0 Heritage Hills 0-0 0-0 North Posey 0-0 0-2 Pike Central 0-0 0-0 Southridge 0-00-0 South Spencer 0-0 1-0 Tecumseh 0-01-0 Tell City 0-0 1-0 Results of Nov. 27 Crawford County 48, Forest Park 42 Evansville Central 71, North Posey 50 Results of Nov. 30 Evansville North 57, North Posey 50 Tecumseh 47, Boonville 42 Tell City 58, Cannelton 45 Result of Dec. 2 South Spencer 54, Owensboro Catholic (Ky.) 49 Games of Dec. 3 Evansville North at Gibson Southern Perry Central at Tell City Games of Dec. 6 Barr-Reeve at Pike Central, Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Evansville Mater Dei at South Spencer Mount Vernon (Posey) at North Posey Games of Dec. 7 Pike Central at Princeton, Junior Varsity, 6:30 p.m.; Varsity, 8 p.m. Heritage Hills at Northeast Dubois Southridge at Gibson Southern Tecumseh at Wood Memorial Tell City at Forest Park Game of Dec. 10 Cannelton at South Spencer Games of Dec. 13 Barr-Reeve at Tecumseh Evansville Central at Gibson Southern Loogootee at Forest Park North Posey at Heritage Hills Tell City at Southridge Games of Dec. 14 Southridge at Pike Central, Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Junior Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Forest Park at Washington Mount Vernon (Posey) at South Spencer South Central (Elizabeth) at Tell City Game of Dec. 17 Southridge at Springs Valley Games of Dec. 20 Vincennes Rivet at Pike Central, Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Forest Park at Northeast Dubois Gibson Southern at South Spencer North Posey at Evansville Mater Dei Tell City at Tecumseh Games of Dec. 21 Pike Central at North Posey, Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Jasper at Southridge Mount Vernon (Posey) at Heritage Hills high school Girls' Basketball Pocket Athletic Conference Standings PACAll Team W-LW-L Tecumseh 1-02-2 Tell City 1-0 3-1 Forest Park 0-0 2-1 Gibson So. 0-0 2-2 Heritage Hills 0-0 2-2 North Posey 0-0 1-3 Southridge 0-02-3 Pike Central 0-1 0-5 South Spencer 0-1 1-3 Results of Nov. 26 Tell City 49, Pike Central 44 Barr-Reeve 61, Tecumseh 47 Evansville Bosse 67, Gibson Southern 50 Evansville Central 66, North Posey 55 Evansville Mater Dei 64, Forest Park 29 Princeton 62, Heritage Hills 49 Result of Nov. 30 North Knox 59, Pike Central 23 Result of Dec. 2 Tecumseh 58, South Spencer 46 Games of Dec. 3 Southridge at Forest Park Wood Memorial at North Posey Games of Dec. 5 Hancock County (Ky.) at South Spencer North Posey at Vincennes Lincoln Southridge at Tell City Tecumseh at Heritage Hills Games of Dec. 6 Forest Park at Gibson Southern South Central (Elizabeth) at Tell City Games of Dec. 9 South Spencer at Pike Central, Junior Varsity, 6:30 p.m.; Varsity, 8 p.m. Evansville North at Gibson Southern Jasper at Heritage Hills Games of Dec. 10 Southridge at North Posey Tecumseh at Forest Park Games of Dec. 12 Pike Central at Southridge, Junior Varsity, 6 p.m.; Varsity, 7:30 p.m. Gibson Southern at Mount Vernon (Posey) Heritage Hills at Forest Park Northeast Dubois at Tell City Perry Central at Tecumseh Wood Memorial at South Spencer Games of Dec. 14 Tecumseh in Linton Tournament Games of Dec. 16 Evansville Reitz at North Posey Tecumseh at Springs Valley Trinity (Ky.) at South Spencer Wood Memorial at Gibson Southern Games of Dec. 17 Forest Park at Evansville Central Southridge at Heritage Hills Game of Dec. 18 Breckinridge County (Ky.) at South Spencer Games of Dec. 19 Pike Central at Gibson Southern, Junior Varsity, 6:30 p.m.; Varsity, 8 p.m. North Posey at Evansville Mater Dei Paoli at Forest Park Tecumseh at Tell City Game of Dec. 20 Southridge at Crawford County First deer kill Dylon Brittain recorded his first-ever deer kill on Friday, Nov. 29. Photo submitted.