Lisbon takes control of Tier 1
By JUSTIN SMOLKOVICHLISBON - Lisbon Lady Blue Devils head coach Jamie Entrikin needed someone to step up in the fourth quarter of Monday's Inter-Tri County League Tier-1 battle with United Local.
Luckily for Lisbon, Mindy Jackson answered the call, scoring nine points in the final eight minutes as the Lady Blue Devils kept their perfect record alive dropping United 48-37.
Jackson, who is affectionately referred to Chief by her teammates, said the win was something special.
"It's exciting, we really wanted this game," she said after her game-high 20-point performance. "It's really big. It's amazing, we knew we could do it."
While the members of the Lady Blue Devils' squad knew they could topple the favored Lady Eagles, to those watching, it appeared as if the sure win was slowly slipping away.
After leading by as many as 10 in the third quarter, United began to crawl back into the contest thanks in large part to a Maggie Miller 3-pointer midway through the period that broke a scoreless drought and got the Lady Eagles moving. United was able to cut the lead to just three points on a Maggie Sell 3-ball, 30-27. Sell finished the game with a team-high 12 points. Maggie Miller chipped in 11.
Jackson, however, proved to be too much for the Lady Eagles to handle in the fourth quarter where she powered her way in the paint.
"We just tried to get it to Mindy when we needed big baskets," Entrikin said. "It was important to them and we felt like we really needed this game."
The inspired play of the Lady Blue Devils was evident on defense where they held a usually red-hot United offense to just 5-of-20 field goals in the first half. and just 11-of-42 for the game
United head coach Roger Zeigler said that Lisbon, quite simply, just played better Monday.
"I think they just took it to us. They were aggressive and we didn't handle it well," he said.
While the Lady Eagles seemed to have difficulty with Lisbon's aggressive style, the same was true for the Lady Blue Devils. Lisbon turned the ball over 20 times. United turned the ball over 17 times but was unable to take advantage of the disparity in giveaways.
It was a mixture of things that led to United's loss according to its coach.
"I didn't think we did a good job on our defense. I just don't think we executed well, we just took lapses," Zeigler said after his team's first loss of the season. "We had wide open dinks, but we didn't make them."
The Lady Eagles also missed on their charity shots, shooting just 11-of-26 from the foul line, failing to take advantage of the numerous fouls from the Lady Blue Devils.
The failings of the United offense had just as much to do with the Lisbon defense, as it had to do with the cold touch from the field.
"We knew what we wanted to do defensively," Entrikin said. "The goal tonight was to keep them below 40. We wanted to slow them down."
The Lady Blue Devils' ability to slow down the Lady Eagles proved the difference late as Lisbon, and Jackson, made shots when they most counted.
"It wasn't pretty, but we made enough big baskets," Entrikin said.
In junior varsity action, Lisbon dropped United, 41-39. Lauren Evans scored 20 for Lisbon while United was pace by Lange Carter with 12.
Lisbon (8-0, 4-0 ITCL) will resume action Thursday when it hosts Mineral Ridge. United (9-1, 3-1 ITCL) will travel to East Palestine Thursday.
Lisbon 48, United Local 37
LISBON : 13 9 13 13 - 48
UNITED LOCAL: 8 7 15 7 - 37
LISBON SCORING: Mindy Jackson 7-6-20, Megan Reynolds 5-7-18,, Abbey Votaw 1-2-4, Katie Snoddy 1-0-3, Lyndsey Ward 1-0-2, Courtney Votaw 0-1-1. TEAM TOTALS: 15, 16-26, 48
UNITED LOCAL SCORING: Maggie Sell 4-3-12, Maggie Miller 4-0-11, Joclyn Berdine 1-3-5, Hillary Hoppel 1-3-5, Ruth Prosko 1-0-2, Sierra Parks 0-2-2. TEAM TOTALS: 11, 11-26, 37
THREE POINTERS: Lisbon 2 (Snoddy 1, Reynolds 1) United Local 4 (Miller 3, Sell 1)
