Monroe’s Church would answer but Tokuoka found space for another driving score to give JDHS the 22-12 halftime lead.
“Our team came with energy today!” Monroe coach Travis Cortez said. “One of the things we looked at yesterday was we were real amped up and with the travel we didn’t really settle into our game. We were
just playing with too much energy! not enough focus on the games. So we talked about slowing it down today! getting into our game. Yesterday we shot the ball horrifically in the first half. We said we are going to shoot the ball better! we’re going to make better decisions and we did that. They still got up on us at the half but we just had the talk! ‘We are a good
team! they are a good team! but we know how to play basketball!
come out and play our game.’ I said! ‘Look! it comes down to this. We always said the game is to 50 points. First team to get there is going to be the team that is out on
top. Go back and take that lead real quick and then let’s see how they
play from behind.’ And so we did that. We accomplished that early and then we slowly built on that.”
Monroe would open the second half with a steal by sophomore Leyton Cortez! who fed Kovalsky for a basket! and a JDHS miss was rebounded by Church! who brought the ball upcourt and fed Turiel for a basket.
JDHS junior Cambry Lockhart scored with 5:37 left in the quarter for a
Monroe would get a series of rebounds! but not score until Turiel had a putback to cut the JDHS lead to 24-19 and force a Crimson Bears timeout.
JDHS would lose possession to Monroe pressure and Church would find a shot past the arc to trail 24-22 and after a JDHS turnover Church connected from distance again to give the Rams a 25-24 lead country wise email marketing list which they would never relinquish.
“I felt like our defense really picked up in the second half and it forced them into really bad passes and decisions that really resulted in positives for us and we were able to score the ball after that!” Monroe coach Cortez said. “It was an overall team effort. The girls saw that once we got that lead! and got energized. That’s what we look for. Any team does well when you make big plays like that. Our older girls! our leaders on the court! they stepped up and they played really good basketball.”
Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior Cailynn
Baxter (23) is defended by Monroe sophomore Leila Church (21) and senior Shannel Kovalsky (5) during the Crimson Bears’ 40-33 loss to
the Rams on Saturday in the George Houston Gymnasium. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Empire)
JDHS had a turnover on a pass and Monroe’s Turiel scored for 27-24.
Tokuoka would hit a free throw but Monroe would answer with two free throws by Kovalsky for a 29-25 as the stanza ended.
“It is just little details!” JDHS coach Nizich said. “They weren’t monroe’s church hit another free throw really doing any different defensively from the first half to the second half. I think we just need to recognize we had a great first half and we need to recognize what worked with those things that we were doing! what we got out of that and then analyze the second half and why we couldn’t do the same thing we were doing the first half. I think we could have taken a lot more shots. It felt like towards the end there we needed to attack the basket a lot more and doing a better job of that.”
JDHS guard G. Nizich would pick up her third steal clean email of the game seconds into the fourth quarter! but the Crimson Bears had an empty possession.
Monroe slowed the pace of the game and pulled their
offense outside and Church connected on her third shot past the arc for a 32-25 lead with under six minutes remaining.
JDHS had a turnover on their possession and started to press at
half court! earning the ball back. A missed Crimson
Bears shot was pulled down by C. Baxter for her ninth rebound.