The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornets split a pair
Saline downs Adrian on road, falls to Monroe at home
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: February 14, 2008
It was a tale of two very different third quarters for the Saline girls' basketball team in two games played last week. And in the end, the Hornets had to deal with two very different results.
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On the road in Adrian Feb. 7, Saline exploded for 27 third-quarter points on its way to a 54-46 win over the Maples. But at home in a rare Saturday contest against Monroe, the Hornets were outscored 23-10 in the period, turning the Trojans' 24-23 halftime lead into a 14-point Saline deficit entering the fourth and a 64-46 defeat.
"We took much better care of the basketball Thursday," Saline head coach Jason Pickett said after the Monroe loss. "When we take care of the ball, we're very capable of doing good things."
The split leaves Saline with an overall record of 13-6 and a Southeastern Conference mark of 10-5 with just one more game (Tuesday's late contest against Chelsea) remaining in the regular season.
As offensively sharp as Saline was in the second half of its contest with Adrian, the Hornets were equally cold to start the game, going 0-11 from the field in the first quarter and scoring just two points. The Hornets would warm up in the second, but still went into halftime trailing the home team 23-16.
But that was before Saline went a red-hot 11-of-17 from the field in the third quarter to outscore Adrian by 13 and go up 43-37 entering the fourth. The Hornets would then hold the Maples to just nine points in the final eight minutes to seal the eight-point victory.
"We bore down and played defense," Pickett said. "We executed very well on offense and got some lay-ups. We were keyed off of forcing turnovers and we did a much better job of that in the second half."
Sarah Hoffman led the Hornets with 13 points, followed by Natalie Wright with 10, Kristen Nye with nine, Angie Hollis and Lauren Zakrasjek with six each, Kaitlin Ward with four, Beth Ormby and Amara Karapas with two each, and Kristy Chapman and Monica Mezger with a point apiece.
Nye and Karapas pulled down six rebounds each, while Zakrasjek added three boards and a team-high three assists.
Monroe came into Saturday's game sporting a 16-2 record fueled in large part by the play of DI College of Charleston commit Ariel Hatcher, but Saline kept Hatcher in check for most of the first half and would take a 10-5 lead with 3:08 left in the first quarter on five straight points from Hoffman.
Monroe would recover to lead 14-11 at the end of the period and by a point going into halftime after a see-saw second quarter that saw the lead change hands eight times. A Chapman three-pointer to open the second half would give the Hornets the lead back, but it would prove to be Saline's last.
Although they hit five free throws, the Hornets would go without a field goal for the next 7:06 as the visitors ripped off a 23-5 run. A Karapas basket ended the drought just ahead of the third-quarter buzzer and a Nye basket and Patti Vaasen free throw brought Saline within 47-36 a minute into the fourth. But Monroe scored the next five and the Hornets would get no closer.
Hoffman would post team highs in both points and rebounds, scoring 11 and pulling in seven boards. Joining her on the scoresheet were Chapman, Wright and Zakrasjek with six points each, Ward with five, Nye with four, Karapas with three, Mezger and Ormsby with two each, and Vaassen with one.
The two teams were whistled for a total of 55 fouls in the game, leading to 43 Monroe free throws and 31 for the Hornets. But the difference, Pickett said, was the 26 Saline turnovers.
"It's hard to give up 26 possessions in a game and beat a good team. It's next to impossible," he said. "I thought we did a decent job on (Hatcher). We know she's a good ball player and when we had help, we defended her pretty well. But .you can't have mental lapses and eventually we had those tonight."
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