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Versailles
sophomore Katie Heckman goes for a save in first quarter
action Thursday against
New Bremen. The Tigers won the MAC game, 35-18.
CNO Photo by George Starks
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V-Lady Tigers post win
By George Starks
VERSAILLES - If it’s been said once. It’s been said a thousand times.
“An ugly win is better than a pretty loss.”
The victory Versailles coach Jackie Stonebreaker received Thursday
against Midwest Athletic Conference foe New Bremen may have been the
ugliest victory Stonebreaker has seen in quite sometime. In a low
scoring, titanic, defensive battle, Versailles outlasted the Lady
Cardinals, 35-18.
With the offense being non-existent, it was the defense that
Stonebreaker could get happy about.
“That is what we talked about in the pre-game,” Stonebreaker said. “We
focused a lot on defense. This week, in the game with Minster, it was a
first quarter run and gun, everyone was shooting lights out. We had
only 17 points at Miami East and again, a high scoring first quarter
for them. We needed to set the tone and play defense in the first
quarter and the girls did a nice job responding to that.”
The Tigers did the job on defense, holding the Cardinals to just two
first quarter points and nine in the half. The problem was offense. At
the end of the first eight minutes, Versailles led 6-2 and 16-9 at the
intermission.
“Our offense didn’t click as well as the defense,” Stonebreaker stated.
“I’ll take defense over offense any day.”
On offense, the Tigers had more turnovers than New Bremen had points,
24 total.
“Unforced turnovers. People in transition trying to make one more pass
when we should just go up and shoot the ball,” Stonebreaker pointed
out. “I don’t know if it’s a lack of confidence or just youth. We need
to keep the girls head up. We won the game and a win is a win.”
With one regular season game left to play before tournament, offense is
a concern for Stonebreaker.
“It’s disheartening to see them struggle,” said Stonebreaker. “Defense
is going to win us a lot of games. If we can keep going at it
defensively, we’re going to stop a lot of teams. You can shoot all you
want but if you can’t stop the other team, they will out-shoot you.”
Looking at Northridge in the tournament opener on Tuesday, Stonebreaker
admits, it won’t be easy.
“This is not a ‘give me’ game by any means,” Stonebreaker pointed out.
“We have to come out and play and these girls know how to come out and
play. We have another practice game (regular season) against Jackson
Center. We call all 20 games practice games. We’ve had some illness and
injuries; now we just have to get everyone back together.”
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