What a difference three days make, the St. John Lady Tigers' offense coming alive right from the start and defeating the Victoria Knights 57-30 last Friday evening on St. John's home court.
Coming out of the gates and scoring 22 points, the Tiger offense was sending a message to the Knights that they came ready to play. Much of the firepower came from St. John's two top (seasonal) scorers doing their part, with sophomore center Teresa Wade making nine points underneath, and senior guard Brooke Burgan making 7 points, one coming from outside the arch.
The Knights were collapsing their zone more on St. John's big players inside, leaving the St. John guards open, almost daring the Tiger guards to hit from outside. That strategy did not work - the Tigers hitting two 3-pointers and some long 2-pointers.
On defense, at times the Lady Tigers were getting beat down court in Victoria's transition game and sometimes forced into fouling to prevent a Victoria score, or over-reaching on the press. The result – the Tigers had too many fouls, committing their seventh long before the Knights did.
The Tigers continued their scoring onslaught in the second, scoring 17 to Victoria's 10. Wade continued looking strong underneath making four baskets. Four Tiger guards each made a basket, with Christa Milton's, a 3-pointer.
Even though Victoria started bringing their zone out, that didn't stop the Tigers, with seven players scoring 14 points in the third, 6 of those from Burgan's two 3's.
Not much went on in the fourth, the Tigers contented to use up the running clock.
Wade was higher scorer for the game with 19 points.
“We did some good things against Victoria, we just got a little frustrated by the foul situation.” said St. John coach Danny Smith after the game. “I thought we made some nice plays on the offensive end, and played very well defensively the second half.”
The St. John Lady Tigers struggled offensively against the LaCrosse Leopards last Tuesday evening for two quarters until the start of the second half, when senior guard Brooke Burgan jump-started the Tiger offense by making St. John's first points with a rare four point play - being fouled while making a 3-pointer. That seemed to be all the motivation the Lady Tigers needed. After that, it was “all she wrote”, the Lady Tigers' defense allowing just two Leopard baskets in the final 16 minutes, and the Tiger offense out-scoring LaCrosse by 28 points in the second half, pulling away and winning 49-15.
Once again, the Tiger defense won this game. While the offense was struggling at first, St. John's trapping man-to-man did its job as usual, but this time starting out, the St. John Ladies committed few fouls. Considering the nature of the Tigers' “in-your-face” defensive pressure, that was no small feat.
Defensively on the other side, a quick LaCrosse team thew up an effective zone against the Tigers during the half, clogging up St. John's middle by not giving the Tigers' inside players many open looks, causing them to force up several shots underneath and missing them.
The score going into halftime 15-9, easily a seasonal low for St. John. During the third quarter, the Tigers started pulling away with their bench scoring 8 of the St. John's 12 points, Burgan's four point play counting for the rest.
The situation really improved in the fourth with seven lady Tigers making 22 points, many of them coming from steals off of side traps, the St. John defense finally taking its toll. Eight of St. John's points came from free throws (8-10), and six from senior guard Ariel Smith canning two 3's in the final minutes.
High scoring honors went to Brooke Burgan with 17 points.
“At times, LaCrosse seemed content just to pass the ball around and they weren't even looking to score,” Smith said. “They only took 22 shots for the game, but this was a good challenge for the girls. We had to play really hard on the defensive end and play that way for long periods of time. I was glad to see that they handled it so well, and we were confident that they'd wear down and they did in the third and fourth quarters. These kind of games help you in the long run as opposed to blow outs through. We only allowed six second half points which we were very pleased with.”
