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Franklin
Monroe’s Taylor Robins gets her shot blocked by Russia
freshman Taylor Daniels.
The Lady Raiders stormed ‘The Hangar’ Saturday
and dropped a 55-43 loss on the Jets.
CNO Photo by George Starks.
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Russia raids ‘The
Hangar’
By George Starks
Sports Editor
PITSBURG - Russia is one of the smallest schools in Ohio. But as the
old saying goes, “dynamite comes in small packages.”
The Lady Raiders waltzed into Franklin Monroe and waltzed out with a
55-43 victory over the Jets in a game that wasn’t as close as the score
indicates.
Russia’s defense was relentless, forcing 14 Jet turnovers through the
first three quarters and holding the Jets to 26 points scored. Franklin
Monroe managed to put 17 points on the board in the final frame but by
then, it was too little too late.
“I told the girls in the locker room after the game that if we play the
first three quarters like we did the fourth, we win this game,” said
Jets coach Gavin Spitler. “We did come out ready to play and that hurt
us. We were forced to go to a zone on defense early and we don’t want
to do that. I want to play man the whole game and press a little but
that wasn’t even a option today.”
Pulling the Jets out of their game plan happened early as Russia jumped
out to 17-11 in the opening quarter and the opened it up by the half,
holding a commanding 34-19 lead, busting the Jet zone often.
“We had it tied at 8-8 and Russia slowly started to pull away from us.
Our defense just wasn’t there.”
On offense, the Jets got off to a slow start but showed they could get
the job done at times. The problem… no consistency.
“It’s our mentality,” Spitler said. “We had good movement but when we
were cutting, we were rounding off our cuts and that’s the biggest
thing. We need to use our picks wisely and we don’t.”
While the Jets committed 17 turnovers in the game, they were out
rebounded on the offensive glass, 8-2.
“We talked about that also after the game,” said Spitler. “Against
teams with that much size and our lack of size, you have to make
contact and we didn’t do a very good job boxing out today. We have to
be more aggressive on the offensive boards and our post players have to
attack the glass more often and we didn’t do that until the fourth
quarter.”
On offense, the Jets were led by Haley Gray with 20 and Taylor Robbins
with 17. After that, there was no support as Aubrie Meyers netted just
three.
“That’s the result of not moving on offense,” said Spitler. “We didn’t
make our cuts like we needed to and no one was getting open.”
The loss drops the Jets to 1-3 on the season and will face Miami East
Thursday on the road.
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