Bulldogs top Titans 44-34
Madison rallies back in second half
By Jeff Deters
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
A good recipe for success is to start the game strong and finish the game stronger. Of course, your chances of winning increase if you also play well in the middle.
But against Southern Coffey County in the opening round of the Lyon County League Tournament on Monday at White Auditorium, the Madison Bulldogs had a little different recipe for success. They started the game well, then went into a tailspin, but recovered in time to come away with a 44-34 win.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 lead after a 3-pointer from Tyler Farthing and a field goal by Cassidy Barnard.
Then came the tailspin.
The Bulldogs didn’t score another point in the first quarter while the Titans ended the quarter on a 14-0 run.
“It wasn’t very much fun there for a while,” Madison coach Crystal Ecton said. “But I think once the posts got into rhythm in the paint, they started finishing. And once our posts started finishing we started to relax a little bit.”
The Bulldogs also upped the defensive intensity in the second quarter. Their pressure defense held SCC’s offense scoreless until a pair of free throws from Ashton Isch with 2:23 to play in the quarter.
“We always want to focus on defense, and when you’re down that’s how you get back into it by playing really hard defense,” Ecton said. “That helps your offense. And that’s what we tried to do and it was effective.”
In the third quarter, Madison outscored SCC 19-6 thanks to a slew of Titan turnovers that led to easy layups and shots inside.
“We started off and played well,” SCC coach Jeff True said. “That first quarter we probably played as well as we have all year, but turnovers just absolutely killed us. In the second quarter we had some turnovers, and in the second half we had some turnovers where we gave them easy possessions. And some of those turnovers weren’t so much physical as they were mental. I’ll give Madison credit. They were playing hard on defense.”
In the third quarter, the Bulldogs hit 8 of 11 field goals, the last came on a steal and layup by Morgan Thomsen that beat the buzzer to give Madison a 33-25 lead heading into the fourth.
SCC cut the Madison lead to three midway through the fourth but never got closer than that as Madison hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
“Obviously in the first half Madison didn’t hit their shots like they did in the second half,” True said. “They started making shots and we didn’t. They shot the ball well, and that’s the chance you’re going to take playing a zone. They did a nice job inside.”
Tyler Farthing led Madison with 13 points, Barnard had 10 and Nicole Farthing had seven.
Ashton Isch led SCC with 14 points while Breanna Isch, Martyna Hegwald and Sarah Webb had six each.
The Bulldogs will play Waverly at 4 p.m. Friday in the semifinals.
Monday at White Auditorium
SCC 14 5 6 9 — 34
Madison 5 9 19 11 — 44
SCC: B. Isch 6, Hegwald 6, Webb 6, A. Isch 14, Newkirk 3.
MAD: T. Farthing 13, Barnard 10, Melton 2, N. Farthing 7, Dubois 2, Bond 2, Shaklee 4, Thomsen 4.