First half points remain elusive for Colby girls in losses
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Colby girls basketball team fell to 211 this season after suffering two conference losses to the Loyal Greyhounds and the Owen-Withee Blackhawks last week.
Loyal, 48-32
Baskets were hard to come by for Colby in the first half of the road contest against Loyal last Friday evening. Significant scoring droughts hurt the Hornets offensive production all night, and while there were instances of the Greyhounds also struggling on that side of the ball, they were able to pull out to a 23-11 lead at halftime and never held less than an 11 point lead in the second period.
Five first half field goals for the Hornets limited their ability to keep pace with their hosts. After Harrison Schmitt got Colby on the board almost immediately on the Hornets first possession, they were held scoreless for nearly seven minutes, allowing the Greyhounds to score nine straight points.
A field goal from Angelique Hernandez got the visitors back on the board, but finding any sort of scoring momentum remained elusive. A three from Alia Hamus kept the Hornets within striking distance but Loyal extended their advantage out to 19-7.
Elizabeth Perez added a pair of baskets in the final five minutes of the first period, but the Hornets still found themselves behind by double-digits heading into the locker rooms.
Both teams opened the second period with a flurry of scoring, with baskets from Schmitt and Lilly Brzezinski helping keep Colby afloat. However, the points for the Hornets disappeared just as quickly as it had come, the Greyhound defense locking them down for the next 10 minutes of gametime. While Colby’s own defense did a decent job slowing the home team, they still picked up nine points over this stretch, giving them a dominant 37-16 advantage with under eight minutes to play.
Hamus finally broke Colby’s scoring funk, hitting her second three of the evening and Hernandez followed it up with a three of her own. A basket from Brzezinski gave the Hornets points on three straight possessions and a trio of free throws from Hernandez and another three from Hamus capped a 14-5 run for Colby.
Time was not on the Hornets’ side, however, and six straight points for the Greyhounds sealed the win for the home team.
Hamus led the team with nine points, Hernandez added eight herself and Brzezinski finished with five. Perez and Schmitt had four points each and Audrey Fleischmann picked up two points.
Owen-Withee, 44-32
The Hornets also went on the road last Tuesday for another Cloverbelt-East matchup against Owen-Withee. A slow offensive first half for Colby was the difference maker as the Blackhawks were able to maintain the double-digit lead they earned over the first 18 minutes through the second period to deal the Hornets a 44-32 defeat.
Colby shot better from the field, hitting 28.6 percent of their shots compared to the Blackhawks’ 24.4 field goal percentage, and made almost half of their two-point field goal attempts, going 9-for-20 inside the arc. They also held Owen-Withee to just three baskets from two-point range all night as the Blackhawks shot 10.7 percent on such attempts.
However, the home team’s three-point shooting and ability to get to the free throw line pushed them ahead. Owen-Withee made 14 of their 23 free throws compared to just five made free throws on 10 attempts for the Hornets. The Blackhawks also shot 8-for-17 from three-point range while Colby hit just three of their 22 shots from beyond the arc.
Owen-Withee led for the entirety of the contest, jumping out to a 4-0 lead to start the scoring. While Harrison Schmitt answered with a basket to halve the Blackhawks’ lead, the trend of the home team doubling up the Hornets continued throughout the first half.
A 6-1 run for Owen-Withee gave them a 10-3 advantage at the midway point of the period and they held a 21-10 lead at halftime. Colby managed just three field goals in the opening half, Elizabeth Perez’s two baskets
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the only others to follow Schmitt’s over that stretch.
Still, the low-scoring nature of the game meant that the Hornets were not out of the game just yet. Schmitt’s three-pointer to start the scoring in the second period cut the Owen-Withee advantage back down to single digits and three later in the half from Angelique Hernandez triggered a 7-1 run for the Hornets that made it a two possession game at 29-23 with six minutes left.
The Blackhawks ended the visitors’ rally with a three-pointer of their own shortly after, however, and quickly rattled off eight straight points of their own to put an end to Colby’s comeback efforts.
Hernandez led the team with 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Schmitt added another nine points and three steals, Lilly Brzezinski had seven points and four steals and Perez had four points, four rebounds and four steals. Alexis Vanderhoof and Alia Hamus both had one point each.
The Hornets will look to get back in the win column when they host Gilman this coming Thursday, Jan. 23. The Pirates are currently 8-6 this season and 4-4 in the Cloverbelt-East. They will be coming off a 56-48 loss to Owen-Withee, but came out on top when they played Colby in early December. Tip off is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
