Slow start does not stop Niles against Chieftains
Published 11:18 pm Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Niles’ Libby Moody splits a pair of Dowagiac defenders in the Vikings’ 56-22 non-league victory Tuesday night. (Leader photo/AMELIO RODRIGUEZ)
The Niles girls basketball team recovered from a sluggish start and beat Dowagiac, 56-22, in non-conference action on Tuesday.
The Vikings, who improved to 2-1, missed 12 of their first 13 shots before getting an offensive spark from Emily Gaines.
Gaines connected on two 3-pointers in the final 1:20 to give Niles an 8-0 lead after one quarter. The lead grew to 21-0 before Dowagiac scored its first point with 1:49 left in the second quarter.
“I thought we were really sluggish,” said Niles girls basketball coach Phil D’Amico, who called a timeout with 5:41 left in the first quarter with his team struggling. “We weren’t executing. We finally started to execute a little bit in the second quarter. We finally started to run the offense that we’ve designed.”
Dowagiac’s Alyssa Allen (right) battles for a loose ball with Niles’ Libby Moody. (Leader photo/AMELIO RODRIGUEZ)
Gaines scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers, to lead Niles. Jazmin Brann added 10 points and Libby Moody added nine off the bench.
Nine different players scored for the Vikings and six different players grabbed at least three rebounds. Reserve Ashli Bryant pulled down nine rebounds.
“Our conference is really tough,” D’Amico said. “We’re going to see a lot of zone and we have to be able to shoot better.
“We’ve got a big game Friday at Portage Northern. I wanted to try to get as many kids minutes tonight as we could and give our starters some rest and get ready for Friday.”
Angel Parker scored eight points to lead Dowagiac, which fell to 0-3. The Chieftains had 34 turnovers and didn’t get their first field goal until there was :28 left in the second quarter when Asyria Geegan scored on a rebound basket.
NILES 56, DOWAGIAC 22
DOWAGIAC 22
Taylor Hulett 4, Jensis Green 4, Asyria Geegan 4, Mara Nelson 0, Riley Daly 0, Vivi Lucio 0, Alyssa Allen 0, Olga Dickson-French 2, Angel Parker 8. TOTALS: 8 6-19 22
NILES 56
Jazmin Brann 10, Maya Brookins 0, Antonia Palmer 2, Emily Gaines 13, Elyse Zimmerman 5, Jaiden Rolan 4, Kylee Myer 6, Libby Moody 9, Jay Palmer-Kirtdoll 2, Ashli Bryant 5, Tegan Bays 0. TOTALS: 22 6-12 56
Dowagiac 0 3 11 22
Niles 8 26 41 56
3-point goals: Dowagiac (none), Niles 6 (Gaines 3, Zimmerman, Moody, Bryant). Total fouls (fouled out): Dowagiac 11 (Hulett), Niles 21 (none). Shooting: Dowagiac 8-of-37 for 22-percent, Niles 22-of-60 for 37-percent. Rebounding: Dowagiac 34 (Green 11), Niles 33 (Bryant 9). Turnovers: Dowagiac 34, Niles 16. Records: Dowagiac 0-3, Niles 2-1
