For The Tribune
The Trinity Lutheran girls’ basketball team outscored Hauser 25-17 in the fourth period to break open a close game and register a 77-65 win Saturday afternoon in the Bollinger Athletic Complex.
Cougars coach Mike Lang said that is a big turnaround from a year ago when Trinity lost by 20 points on the Jets’ floor.
“That’s a difference of 32 points,” he said. “We had a lot of girls contributing today. It just wasn’t one or two players. We had whole host of players (nine total) score. We got to see our depth a little bit.
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“Today, everybody got to see what we see in practice every day in Jodi Goecker. Our guard depth is really three, four five players deep, and not just one or two. We would have liked to see Abby (Hackman) on the floor a little more. She got in foul trouble.”
Goecker and Maddie Roark led the Trinity attack with 18 points each.
Both teams played aggressive defense throughout with 53 fouls being called, and two Cougars fouled out.
Trinity held a 53-48 lead going into the fourth period, and two free throws by Roark increased the lead to 55-48.
A runner in the lane by Whitney Rogers increased Trinity’s lead to 62-52 with 5:32 remaining and the closest the Jets could get after that was nine points.
The game was tied at 9-9 late in the first period when Piper Acton made two free throws, Anne Franke scored a basket, and Rogers added two free throws to make it 15-11 at the end of the quarter.
Roark added a basket and Franke two free throws at the start of the second period to increase the lead to 19-11. The Cougars held a 36-31 lead at the half and stayed in front the rest of the way.
One of the positives Hauser coach Brad Hamilton said he liked about the Jets’ performance was that they battled to the end.
“The positives I think are that we never quit. We battled to the end. We missed a lot of free throws. This is two straight games we’ve missed at least 16 free throws, and we lost by 12. We’ve got to hit free throws better, and play better defense.”
“We can’t give up 77 points,” Hamilton said. “Sixty-five is enough to win a game in my opinion. I’m satisfied with that effort offensively. We’ve got a lot of work to do on the defensive end.”
Paige Miller scored a game-high 23 points, Leslie Sims added 20 and Tessa Sims had 10 to top the Jets in scoring.
Hamilton said he was pleased to see his team hold a 31-24 advantage on the boards as Tessa Sims grabbed 14 rebounds.
Hauser (1-1) finished with 17-for-56 shooting from the floor and had 15 turnovers, while Trinity was 22-for-45 from the floor and committed 23 turnovers.
Rogers topped the Cougars in rebounds with eight, and also had 8 points.
“Our rebounding has to be a point of emphasis,” Lang said. “We gave up too may weak sides. It was an experienced team versus an inexperienced team. They had four seniors on the floor quite a bit, and their seniors understand the game. They are four really good seniors.
“We’ve got to do more recognition of covering the weak side and being more aggressive on the boards.”
The Cougars (2-0) will host Brownstown Central on Tuesday.
“We like to think that we scored 77 points and did a nice job, we’ve still got some good things to be able to show,” Lang said.