Colby girls’ defense shines against Stratford
Colby Hornets head coach Terry Schmitt has a lot of faith in his players. So when he decided to implement some pretty complex tactics on defense at the start of the season, he knew his players had the basketball IQ to carry them out.
That faith was rewarded when the Hornets held the Stratford Tigers to under 40 points in Colby on Tuesday, Dec. 21.
“After last night’s game, they came out wanting to play tonight. They worked their tail off,” Schmitt said after his players strong defensive efforts. “It reminds me a lot of when we played Neillsville. They were bound and determined to be aggressive. I’m very proud of how they played defense.”
It was a great response from the Hornets after dropping a 59-19 road game to Marathon the night before.
Schmitt knows the Hornets aren’t going to overwhelm teams with height, but what he does have in spades is speed, and that was apparent for much of the game against the Tigers. Colby used their quickness to get inside, and from there, draw contact.
“Before the game we talked about driving the ball more, setting some screens and rolling, and put pressure on their defense, which I thought we did.”
The Hornets held early leads of 8-7 at 8:04 in the first half, and 12-10 with 6:05 to go before the break.
Colby got the Tigers in foul trouble, and was able to get to the line 24 times, but unfortunately, in a game that was decided by 10 points, every missed free throw loomed large, and the Hornets went 13 of 24 on the charity stripe.
“The free throws are big,” Schmitt acknowledged. “Until we fix this, all we can do is keep working on reps, and hopefully get this fixed.”
The biggest issue wasn’t the free throws, but the fouls that led to those free throws. The Hornets have a solid starting five, but when Colby’s starters had to sit on the bench, the Tigers made their move in the first half that, and take a 2016 advantage into the locker room.
“We need to get some of our fouls taken care of. That’s hurting us with too many players sitting.”
Colby’s defense kept the Hornets in the game, but offense was hard to come by for both teams. With just five minutes remaining, neither team had scored more than 30 points.
The Tigers eventually found a pattern that worked - feed 5’11” forward Lauren Kraus the ball. Krause scored a game high 19 points, and even with Colby not letting another Tiger score more than five, that was enough for them to take a 35-29 lead with a minute to play.
Colby hoisted up a few threes, but could not connect, and the Tigers salted the game away at the free throw line.
Alexis Vanderhoof led Colby with nine points. Brett and Harrison Schmitt each chipped in with four points, Kya Viegut and Trisha Vanderhoof added three apiece. Hannah Trush, Kylie Orth and Hayden Willner all scored two apiece.
The 2021-22 Hornets remain a work in progress, but according to Schmitt, bit by bit, Colby is starting to put the little things together that will lead to success down the road.
“Offensively, I think we took a corner tonight,” Schmitt said. “We started helping each other more, and we still have a long ways to work on that, but I see things progressing.
“After tonight, we get a little break here, get some people healthy, and I think the second half of the season will be a different story for us.”
Colby will enjoy an extended break, and will not be in action again until 2022. The Hornets next game will be a nonconference home game with Rib Lake on Monday, Jan. 3. Tip off is at 7:15 p.m.
