DANVILLE — For most of Thursday’s home opener, the Danville girls basketball team was hoping for the one push that would get the win.
But St. Joseph-Ogden did not let that push happen, getting the right plays at the right time to get the 54-42 win over the Lady Vikings.
“I felt like it was a very scrappy game,” Danville junior forward Ashanti Conaway said. “I felt like we were hanging on to them, but we should have fought harder in the end. We got out-scrapped.”
“It stayed pretty even throughout most of the game, but they were fundamentally sound and consistent and they didn’t let up at all,” Danville senior Anna Houpt said. “They just outlasted us.”
What Danville head coach Glennie Watson saw was a breaking down in one stat.
You go 9-of-21 from the free-throw line and that was the game there,” Watson said. “They out-scrapped us and No. 4 (SJO’s Timera Blackburn-Kelley) was a workhouse for them. She was offensive rebounding, getting all the loose balls, she was everywhere for them. Hats off for them because they moved the ball well and made shots when they needed to.”
The Lady Vikings were just down 13-11 after the first quarter and was down 28-21 at halftime. After getting close in the third, the Spartans took over and was able to hold off the charge.
“I felt like we have to bond as a team more to get that last push,” Conaway said. “We always scrap in the third quarter to get back into the game and we fall off in the fourth. I feel like that is something that we can work on as a team and fix it in other games.”
Conaway led Danville with 15 points, while Houpt and Audrina Burns each had eight and Jada Bell added six with some close misses.
“I thought she (Conaway) did a great job of posting up and the team did a good job of getting her the ball in the post,” Watson said. “She was rebounding the ball very well and I thought she competed well defensively as far as defense their post because they kept ducking their post in. All in all, not a bad start from her.
“That’s the game, you are going to make some and miss some. In my opinion, missed layups are a sign of lack of concertation and focus and that goes back to missed layups in practice. She (Bell) was fighting and competing and it was one of those nights where the ball didn’t go in. She is going to have to get back into the gym and get the work in and prepare to play a tough Watseka team on Saturday.”
Katie Erickson led St. Joseph-Ogden with 15 points, while Blackburn-Kelley had 10 points, Hayden Dahl, Addison Brooks and Kayla Osterbur each had seven points and Kenzie Atwood added six.
It was the first time since the Paris North American Lighting Tournament about two weeks ago that the Lady Vikings were on the court.
“It is always hard because we couldn’t practice most of the time because of Thanksgiving and the games that were snowed out, so we had a week with not playing at all together,” Houpt said. “I think it was an adjustment and it was our first home game, so it was hard to piece it together immediately. I think we needed to get the first-home game jitters out of the way and I think we will be good.”
“You can say it was a long layoff but basketball players rise to the occasion,” Watson said. “I am an old-school guy, so when the lights come on, you have to play. They don’t come to see me coach, they come to see them play. It was a long stretch, but that’s not excuse. We have players that are juniors and seniors that are going to college and that coach does not want to hear that. His livelihood depends on their production, so they have to prepare for that here, so they can go to the next phase.”
While it was a loss in the first home game, Conaway believes that things will change as the season goes along.
“I love our crowds. Our parents are out biggest supporters, but I get the first-game jitters for people,” Conaway said. “We have a young team, so getting them into high school play is tough, but we ill get them there. I feel that we have to push through and use the crowd’s energy.”
The Lady Vikings are 1-4 and will travel to Watseka today.
“Just like I told them, it will be a similar game on Saturday. We have to be prepped and ready to play,” Watson said. “We have to put in extra time in practice instead of running out of the gym because the practice is over. We have to stay for an extra 10 minutes to put up shots and free throws.”