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Arcanum
sophomore Rebecca Deao applies some solid first quarter defense as
Bradford's Gabby Fair looks for a passing lane. Arcanum won the
physical battle with the Lady Railroaders, 55-42. CNO Photos by Dylan
Knoop
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Defense the difference for Lady Trojans
Arcanum looking for share of CCC title
By George Starks
BRADFORD- Through three quarters of basketball Monday at Bradford, the
game more resembled a scene from The Shootout OK Corral.
A lot of wild shots, some ducking and dodging and bodies hitting the
floor.
With eight minutes left to be played, Arcanum was clinging to a slim
39-35 lead.
At that point, someone rang the doorbell and the Trojans opened the
door on one end and slammed it shut on the other.
Arcanum broke out the fourth quarter whoopin sticks and applied a
masterful beat down on the home-standing Lady Roaders.
Offensively, the door was opened as Arcanum poured in 16 points in the
frame.
On defense, the Trojans slammed the door shut on the Bradford offense,
holding the Roaders to a slim seven points.
In the end, it added up to a 55-42 Cross County Conference victory for
Arcanum.
“My kids played hard defense in the fourth quarter and Bradford just
never came around offensively,” said Trojans coach Rachel Ferron. “I
don’t know if we just wore them down or what but offensively, they just
couldn’t come through.”
Holding a 20-13 lead with 2:43 remaining in the first half, Arcanum had
done nearly everything right, including the ability to keep Bradford
sensation Bree Bates scoreless.
In the final 2:43 of the half, Bates netted her only six points of the
game and when the buzzer had sounded ending the half, a 20-13 lead had
been erased and the scoreboard showed a brand new game had begun at
25-25.
“I told the kids at halftime that we had let a good team back into the
game and that we were going to have to go out and play our game and
dominate like we did in the first quarter. We let Bradford take in the
second quarter and we came out and played our game in the third
quarter.”
Leading the charge for the Trojans were sophomore Alexis Abner with 18
and senior Abby O’Donnell with 11 points and 11 rebounds with sophomore
Rebecca Deao adding eight tough points in support.
Off the bench, freshman Stevie Johnting dropped in eight as several
others chipped in as well.
“Everybody was a key factor in our win tonight,” Ferron stated. “We
knew coming in that it was going to take out whole bench to win this
game and we did. Shelby Howard was a big key off the bench. We have
talked all week at practice the Bree Bates was a huge rebounder so we
had talked to Deao she had to be big on the boards tonight and she was.
Holding her down in the first half was big for us and when she got her
points at the end of the first half that sparked them. They look to her
on both ends of the floor to come up big and at the end of the first
half, she did. We held Dunlevy down tonight (10 points). I am proud of
our hustle tonight.”
After the game, Bradford coach Patrick McKee talked about the Arcanum
defense in the fourth quarter.
“Their defense made us do some things we didn’t want to do,” said
McKee. “It forced us in to some scenarios we didn’t want to take. The
girls took some ill-advised shots that they didn’t want to take and
forced a few shots they shouldn’t have taken. I think the lack of time
and the amount of points we were down sped them up a little bit and got
us out of our comfort zone and had us doing things we didn’t want to do
at all.”
When Bates caught fire at the end of the first half, sending the
Roaders into the locker-room in a tie after trailing big during the
game, McKee was thrilled to be even.
“We were pretty excited especially after the first quarter we had
played,” said McKee said. “We didn’t play well at all. We didn’t play
good defense and we didn’t do a lot of things offensively that we
should have. We had a lot of energy going into halftime and thought we
could execute some X’s and O’s going into the second half. We had a lot
of good looks but took a lot of ill-advised shots.”
Arcanum, 5-3, 4-1, will be idle until Monday when the Trojans travel to
Mississinawa Valley while the Roaders, 6-3, 2-2, will entertain
Riverside Friday in the Roaders Holiday Tournament.
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Arcanum
sophomore Alexis Abner gets two of her game high 18 points Monday
against Bradford. With the victory,
Arcanum went to 4-1 in the Cross County Conference while Bradford
dropped to 6-2 in the CCC.
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