Lyndon girls out-sized in tournament loss to Oakley
Nick Dunn
Friday, March 9, 2007
MANHATTAN — Before his team’s state quarterfinal match-up with Oakley on Thursday, Lyndon coach Frank Hart knew his squad would be faced with a difficult task — trying to stop Oakley’s 6-foot-1 center Brea Teeter.
The seventh-seeded Lady Tigers, who don’t have a player listed above 5-foot-9, were able to slow Teeter and the No. 2-seeded Plainsmen for a half, which was exactly what Hart wanted.
“We felt if we kept it close in the first half, we were going to have a chance at the end,” Hart said.
Unfortunately for Lyndon, Hart’s prophecy didn’t come true, as Oakley used a key second-half run to turn a six-point halftime advantage into a 59-48 victory. Teeter dominated down low, finishing with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting.
On a day where Oakley shot 0-of-12 from three-point range, Teeter’s performance was that much more important. Seeing his team’s struggles from outside in the larger Bramlage Coliseum, Oakley coach Randall Rath went back to what worked — dumping the ball inside.
“That was our game plan going in,” Rath said. “That’s been something we’ve been able to do all season. That’s what has made our team be as successful as it has.”
Callie Baalman added 17 points for the Plainsmen (22-2), who advanced to the semifinals, where they will face Osborne at 3 p.m. today.
Chelsea Schmitz scored 13 to lead the Tigers (17-7), who had trouble finding any sort of offensive rhythm against Oakley’s 2-3 zone. They finished shooting just 25.9 percent from the field and turned the ball over 18 times. During one stretch in the second half, Lyndon missed nine consecutive shots as Oakley spread the gap to 50-36.
“We just didn’t put the ball in the basket,” Hart said. “When you don’t shoot the ball very well, it’s pretty easy for somebody to pull away.”
Although the end of the season was a disappointment, Hart tried to see the silver lining in the loss. The Lady Tigers lose only one senior, and Hart said his team would be back and better next year.
“The core of our team is juniors,” Hart said, “and this is a good experience for us. Hopefully we’ll be back here next year, and maybe we’ll get a little better match-up size-wise. We’ll see what we can do next year.”
OAKLEY girls 59, LYNDON 48
Lyndon 7 10 12 19 — 48
Oakley 8 15 16 20 — 59
Lyndon (17-7) — Bolz 2-12 2-3 6, Persinger 2-7 4-4 8, Schmitz 4-10 2-2 13, Goetz 1-6 0-2 3, Banzhaf 4-12 3-4 11, Osburn 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Schmidt 1-6 5-6 7, Clark 0-0 0-0 0, Wigger 0-0 0-0 0, Miner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-54 16-21 48.
Oakley (22-2) — Dennis 3-9 1-4 7, Weiser 3-10 0-0 6, C. Baalman 6-10 5-5 17, Hubert 1-5 0-0 2, Teeter 9-13 6-6 24, Cooksey 0-4 0-0 0, Hemmert 0-0 0-0 0, M. Baalman 1-2 1-2 3, Horton 0-0 0-0 0, Racette 0-0 0-0 0, Kuhn 0-0 0-0 0, Hoff 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-53 13-17 59.
3-pointers — Lyndon 4-17 (Bolz 0-1, Schmitz 3-9, Goetz 1-4, Banzhaf 0-3); Oakley 0-12 (Dennis 0-2, Weiser 0-3, C. Baalman 0-1, Hubert 0-3, Teeter 0-1, Cooksey 0-2). Total fouls — Lyndon 14, Oakley 16. Fouled out — none.