The Trinity Lutheran girls held a 44-38 lead over Southwestern (Hanover) with just over six minutes remaining in Friday night’s game in the Bollinger Athletic Complex.
Kailene Cockerham scored a basket and Sydney Jaynes followed up with a basket and two free throws in Trinity’s next two possessions, and very quickly, the Cougars’ lead stretched to 15 points and ultimately a 64-48 win.
The Rebels followed up with their ninth 3-pointer of the night, but the Cougars came back with another 6-0 run and Trinity was on its way to its 11th win in 12 games.
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“They came out and hit 9 of 17 3s,” said Trinity coach Mike Lang “To their credit, they stepped up and hit their shots. That’s the first time all year they’ve had their full team together, and they played hard.
“We’ve got to do a better job of weak side rebounding and understanding our drops defensively. We got out of rotation, and it hurt us. Devin (Bierly, Southwestern coach) does a nice job.”
The Cougars had 15 turnovers, committed 13 fouls and were outrebounded 34-32. Lang said his team has to be better in those areas.
“We’ve got to have our focus a little stronger on the defensive end, and even on the offensive end, I thought we got out and we wanted to run, and we wanted to get going too fast, and we weren’t looking to see what was there,” he said.
“We made a lot of silly passes out in transition. All year long, we haven’t had careless turnovers, and tonight, I thought was the first night we had a lot of careless turnovers that allowed them to stay in the game.”
Jaynes had a strong fourth quarter with two field goals, 6-for-6 on free throws and seven rebounds. She finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds overall and said she likes the way the Cougars are putting things together.
“Overall, I think we’re playing well,” Jaynes said. “We just drove it into the girls that we’re just working as a unit. We get into plays and we’re trying to perfect the plays, and we’re not there yet. We’re super close. We’ve just got a little bit of tweaking to do, but I think we can get there.”
She mentioned the other starters besides her and Bailey Tabeling have made big contributions.
Tabeling had an impressive first quarter, as she made all five of her shots from the floor for 11 points to help Trinity to a 19-8 lead, and the Cougars were in front to stay.
The sophomore guard finished strong with nine points in the fourth quarter and scored 29 points.
Tabeling had a 3-pointer and two free throws in the second period to help Trinity to a 30-22 lead at the half.
Genesis Munoz converted a 3-point play and added another basket midway through the third period that extended Trinity’s lead from 34-28 to 40-30.
“G’s 5-0 run when we were a little bit stagnant offensively was huge,” Lang said.
Cockerham scored seven points and Liza Froedge six, and Lang said he is pleased to see several girls score.
“It’s been happening more and more,” he said. “Kailene led us in scoring at North Harrison (19 points) and Liza has consistently been going (for) eight to 10 points.”
“I can’t complain about winning 10 in a row and being 11-1. There is a lot of little things we look at tonight. This was a big week for the kids. It was finals week, we traveled to North Harrison Tuesday night and they’ve been up late studying. They were really loose before the game, but I don’t think they were focused simply because I think they were burned out after this week. I’m proud of the way they battled in the second half.”
Ellie Foley made four 3-pointers and scored 18 to lead the 3-3 Rebels.
Trinity will host Vincennes Rivet on Tuesday.