By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
BUCHANAN – Buchanan's pesky defense turned an 8-8 first quarter tie into a 23-12 halftime lead on the way to a 43-32 Lady Bucks win in girls high school basketball action Friday night at Buchanan High School.
Buchanan, 5-1, 4-0 in the Lakeland Conference, switched from a zone to a man-to-man defense to start the second quarter. That switch led to nine second quarter turnovers and four points scored by the Lady Bobcats, who drop to 3-4 and 3-1 in league play with the loss.
"That's what we wanted to do, put the pressure on them and get the ball and go with it," Buchanan coach Bill Weaver said of the second quarter swithch. "That was a pretty rough game. It was getting pretty physical out there and I thought we handled it pretty well but the big turn around was going to the man-to-man defense in the second quarter. The kids really gutted it out and got into the passing lanes and put some pressure on them on like our zone was doing in the first quarter. I was real happy with our intensity on defense."
Buchanan rolled on in the quarter with a 7-of-12 shooting effort to take a 23-12 lead at the half.
Buchanan senior Hayley Cashier pumped in nine of her game high 17 points in the quarter.
"As the game went on we were getting better shots. Through the first quarter we didn't get that good of looks I didn't think," Weaver said. "Really it was their effort tonight, a whole team effort that turned the game around."
It was much of the same in the third quarter with the Lady Bucks limiting Brandywine's offense to another four-point quarter as they took a commanding 33-16 lead heading into the final eight minutes of play.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Lady 'Cats as they outscored Buchanan 14-10 but the damage was to deep for them to pull out a win.
"In that second quarter we let them get into our head a little bit," Bobcat coach Mark Zache said of the dismal second quarter. "We just fell apart there. The third quarter we had the looks, we had the wide open looks we just didn't finish the shots. They got physical with us and we knew coming in they were a physical team. It's just that we didn't respond the way we should have responded. That's the way our conference plays and that's the kind of style we want to play too. We just didn't respond in a good way."
Cashier and Anna Callahan controlled the boards as they each pulled in 14 caroms apiece. The team finished with a 34-22 advantage on the boards as Katie Smallwood hauled in 11 for Brandywine. Smallwood also led her team in scoring tallying a team high 13 points.
The win by the Lady Bucks puts them at the top of the Lakeland race with the 4-0 league mark.
Buchanan's other senior on the team, Emily Ross, contributed to the win with 12 points and junior Callahan chipped in with 10.
On defense Hillary Faulkner and Elizabeth Hein picked up three steal each to lead the defensive attack.
Brandywine's junior varsity team went home with a win as they held off a determined junior Bucks team for a 38-32 win. Sam Low and Teila Smith each scored six points to lead the Lady Cats in the victory. Chelsea Adolph scored 27 of her teams point to pick up high scoring honors in the game.
BRANDYWINE 32
Emily Low 2 1-2 5, Nicole Newman 1 0-0 2, Kendra Zache 2 0-0 4, Nicole Boeve 1 0-0 2, Katie Smallwood 5 3-6 13, Alexa Perry 1 0-0 2, Jennifer Marshman 2 0-1 4, Jenna Harris 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 4-9 32
BUCHANAN 43
Hillary Faulkner 1 0-0 2, Emily Ross 6 0-1 12, Elizabeth Hein 1 0-0 2, Anna Callahan 4 2-4 10, Hayley Cashier 8 1-1 17, Leah Hunt 0 0-0 0, Amanda Wynn 0 0-0 0, Julia LaBounty 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 3-7 43
Brandywine 8 4 4 16 – 32
Buchanan 8 15 10 40 – 43
Team fouls: Brandywine 14, Buchanan 9. Fouled out: Low (BW). Records: Brandywine 3-4, 3-1, Buchanan 5-1 4-0