The St. John Lady Tigers saw something almost new last Tuesday evening at Kinsley, a man-to-man defense thrown at them by a quick Lady Coyotes team, the Lady Tigers having to adjust from usually playing against a zone to playing against a man-to-man, eventually pulling away for the win 44-23.
In the process, sometimes the St. John guards had difficulties holding on to the ball or getting the ball inside. Even though it wasn't that effective, the Coyotes did a full-court press against the Tigers.
That all changed, the Tigers' defense once again wearing down another opponent, but this time early on in the second quarter, causing the Coyotes to make several mistakes.
Quickly coming off of Kinsley turnovers, the Tigers threw the length of the court twice to freshman Jamie Waters for open layups, the Tigers out-scoring Kinsley by nine and going into halftime leading 21-8.
Kinsley seemed to had gotten their second wind in the third period, out-scoring the Tigers by 2 (8-10), with Teresa Wade, Brooke Burgan and Waters making all eight points. The score at the end of three – St. John 29, Kinsley 18.
The Tiger defense kept forcing Kinsley turnovers in the final period, holding the Coyotes to just five points.
Although our offense struggled a bit, we never panicked because of the way we were able to keep them from scoring," said Tiger coach Danny Smith. "These types of games are good for us to help us work on a few things. We had not seen a man-to-man defense in so long that we didn't handle it very well. That'll be a big focus in our practice for post season. The best teams will play us man-to-man."
