Kokomo’s Lady Wildkats took advantage of a disastrous third quarter for Northwestern, scoring the first 15 points of the second half en route to a 51-34 victory in both teams’ season opener in Memorial Gym Saturday night.
An offensive rebound and putback by Kendra Ryker with five seconds left in the first half gave Kokomo a 25-19 halftime lead, then the Lady Kats essentially put the game away in the first six minutes of the third quarter.
“We came out strong in the first quarter,” Kokomo coach Jason Snyder said. “We led 14-6 at one point, then [Northwestern] coach [Kathie] Layden switched from a man-to-man defense to a 2-2-1 press. Northwestern has a great coaching staff. Even though we had practiced against their zone, we fumbled around and didn’t get into our offense, and didn’t get many good looks at the basket. We talked about the press at halftime and did a much better job in the third quarter.”
Northwestern missed its first six shots of the second half, while turning the ball over 8 times. That allowed Kokomo to stretch its lead to 40-19 with 1:59 to go in the third. Following a Northwestern timeout Hannah Treadway hit a short jumper from the right wing for the Lady Tigers first point of the second half with just 1:30 left in the stanza.
Kokomo really picked up the speed of the game in the third quarter, taking a 40-23 lead into the final period, but Layden, in her first season at Northwestern, thought the pace of the game was not their problem.
“That’s a tempo we are comfortable playing, but we just couldn’t find the basket,” Northwestern coach Kathie Layden explained. “Without hitting any shots, we couldn’t get into our press. A lot of our tentative play at times was due to the girls learning a new system. We’ve only been practicing three weeks and we understand we’ll have some breakdowns. I was proud of the way our girls hustled and didn’t give up. Kokomo is a good team. Jason does a great job.”
Ryker led the Lady Kats with 10 points, closely followed by Bri Poe and Brayana Fowler with nine apiece. Anastacia Kirby added eight points and a game-high 11 rebounds.
“Our senior leadership was very good [Saturday] night,” Snyder said. “When things got tough in the second quarter we battled hard and ground it out. I was pleased with our balanced scoring. Our two freshmen [Allie Lowe and Kaila Stiner] got over 11 minutes of playing time. We hope to be able to use our depth as an asset as the season goes on.”
Northwestern also had only one player in double figures. Kaitlynd Lear scored 10, Hannah Treadway added 8 points and 6 rebounds, and Brooke Treadway scored 7 for the 0-1 Lady Tigers.
Kokomo, 1-0, faces a tough Logansport team Saturday night at home.
“We start our North Central Conference season early this year,” Snyder said. “We hope to pack Memorial Gym Saturday night. Logan has an exciting team and we think we have an exciting team. It should be a great battle.”
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Related Photos
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Struggle: Kokomo freshman Allie Lowe reaches back for a rebound during the first half of the Wildkats’ season opener with Northwestern Saturday night at Memorial Gym. Lowe had six rebounds in her debut, and the Kats defeated the Tigers 51-34.
Discussion
Lady Kats stifle Northwestern in season opener
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Northwestern takes down West Lafayette
Northwestern played a very solid game on both offense and defense in defeating West Lafayette 8-5 in the opening round of the IHSAA Class 3A Peru Baseball Sectional Thursday night.
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10 area athletes advance to boys track state finals
Austin Roark’s first season as the head boys track and field coach at Eastern High School just keeps getting better and better.
A week after guiding the Comets to their first sectional title since 1998, Roark will join six of his athletes at next weekend’s IHSAA state finals after advancing out of Thursday’s Kokomo Regional at Walter Cross Field. -
Eastern dominates Taylor in softball
GREENTOWN — The third time turned out not to be the charm for the Taylor softball squad as Eastern improved to 3-0 on the season over its backyard rival Wednesday night, ousting the Titans from the Class 2A Eastern Sectional 15-0 in five innings.
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Barnes sets Taylor's career hits record
Taylor baseball standout Logan Barnes made his final game at George Phares Field one to remember.
Barnes pitched four solid innings to lead Taylor past Monroe Central 9-3 Tuesday. In addition, he went 2 for 3 at the plate, pushing his career hits total to a school-record 142. -
Kats drop heartbreaker
When the postseason arrives, emotions surge like a roller-coaster. One minute, it’s a long uphill, then a wild series of events offer a barrage of frights and thrills. And then, for one team, the ride ends and there aren’t any more tickets for another go around.
After two days of chills and thrills, Kokomo’s softball team ran out of tickets Tuesday night in the Class 4A Harrison Sectional. The Kats dropped a 4-3 decision to Harrison in eight innings, giving up a run in the top of the extra frame, and having a runner tagged out at home in the bottom of the frame.
“It was a great game,” Harrison coach Dick Mitchell said. “It’s always nerve-wracking to coach in one of them, but both teams played their hearts out. Nobody deserved to lose that game, but unfortunately somebody does.” -
Comets turn heads at track regional
Heading into Tuesday’s IHSAA girls track and field regional at Fort Wayne Northrop High School’s Spuller Stadium, event workers alike weren’t sure of Eastern High School’s location.
After the dust settled, they may feel compelled to get a map out and find out where Greentown is located.
Led by seniors Sarah Wagner, Brittany Neeley and Bethany Neeley, the Comets qualified for the state finals in six separate events to finish fourth as a team with 55.5 points, behind host and champion Northrop (78), Bellmont (68) and Carroll (Allen) 66. -
GASKINS: Hibbert’s block was thing of beauty
For the better part of the NBA season, ESPN devoted all kinds of time on SportsCenter episodes to replays of two dunks. Anyone who watches any ESPN at all surely knows the two to which I’m referring: 6-foot-11 DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers posterizing 6-3 Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons, and 6-8 LeBron James of the Miami Heat hammering home a dunk over 6-2 Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics.
Day after day, ESPN commentators lavished endless praise, which quickly grew tiresome. The dunks were strong, but Jordan and James were much taller and heavier than Knight and Terry and the dunkers also caught perfect alley-oop passes with the defenders in poor positions to defend. Still, ESPN commentators loved these plays.
I kept wondering if a great defensive play would receive the same kind of love. -
Coons, Walker, Glassburn reach Victory Lane
When the dust settled Sunday evening at the Kokomo Speedway, a pair of drivers who have visited Victory Lane in the past at the local oval found themselves there once again while a talented up-and-comer hit the hallowed ground for the first time.
Jerry Coons Jr. had his way in the sprint car feature and Craig Walker seemed to get faster as the laps wound down to win the Street Stock main event, however Kokomo High School sophomore Kory Glassburn had to scratch and fight before scoring the first feature win of his career in the Thunder Car A-main. -
Field is set for Indianapolis 500
After being bumped from the starting field while sitting on the qualifying line on pole day, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest time on bump day, assuring himself a spot in the Indianapolis 500.
The field of 33 cars will have one final opportunity to practice on Friday before next Sunday’s 97th running of the 500.
One year ago the Sarah Fisher Racing Team withdrew Newgarden’s entry on the first day of qualifying and had to qualify on bump day. This year the team decided not to make another qualifying run and got bumped. -
Athlete of the week
Cole led the small-school Comets to the Kokomo Sectional title, their first title since 1998.
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