Tattnall girls overcome sluggish start for win

Strong Rock threw enough wrinkles at Tattnall Square’s girls to throw them off balance on the offensive end of the floor on Wednesday night in the Tattnall Square Christmas Tournament.

So much, in fact, that the Trojans were still scoreless after a quarter of play.

But Tattnall adjusted, getting its scoring in gear to eventually hold off the Crusaders (4-6) in a gritty 35-32 victory.

Tattnall (3-5) trailed 13-12 at halftime before inching ahead in the third and leading for good with just inside five minutes to play on a jump shot by Ellie Kahley for a 27-25 advantage.

The Trojans got key defensive stops down the stretch to seal the win.

Four who mattered

Kahley: The point guard usually doesn’t post big scoring numbers in basketball, but Kahley stepped up when called up on Wednesday. Two big jump shots in the fourth quarter plus a perfectly dished pass to Grace Hiller on the wing for a jumper all but put the game away with a 33-29 Tattnall lead with 58 seconds to play. Kahley had six points, four in the fourth quarter.

Hiller: Another Trojans player that came up big on Wednesday in crunch time as shown by her fourth-quarter score.

Allie Gordon: It wasn’t a coincidence on Wednesday that Tattnall picked up the pace when Gordon got going on offense. Strong Rock had little answer for Gordon’s athleticism in the low post as she scored 14 points.

Penelope Naftel: Strong Rock had a chance to win with her play. Naftel scored 21 points on Wednesday, accounting for all but 11 of the Crusaders points.

Turning point

Tattnall may as well been shooting against a rim with a lid over it on during the first quarter. Simply put, the shots were on target for the Trojans but they just could not get them to fall. That changed in the second quarter on a 8-4 run started by a Breonna Glover put-back followed up by a score by Gordon and a pair of free throws via Addie Kelley. With 3:53 until halftime, Tattnall trailed 10-8, in position to pull ahead, which they did in the third quarter before doing so for good later in the game.

Observations

Boxed in: Strong Rock was able to bog Tattnall down with its box and one defense, forcing the Trojans to adapt. And adjust they did, as the likes of Kahley and Hiller were put in position to step up with Gordon being keyed on. Both took full advantage as they helped seal the win for Tattnall.

Tough on defense: As tough to watch as the scoreless first quarter was for Tattnall, its defense was a nice feather in the cap. Holding the Crusaders to just six first-quarter points put the Trojans in position to rally in the second quarter.

Wednesday’s other scores

Stratford’s girls backed up their top-ten ranking with a 52-18 pasting of Ola, and the boys took a 64-32 win over Lake Oconee. Union Grove’s girls topped Chattanooga Christian 40-31 with Union Grove also winning the boys matchup between the trams, 61-59 in overtime.

FPD’s girls dropped a tough 62-57 decision to South Atlanta. Tattnall boys beat Strong Rock boys 69-39.

They said it

Tattnall head coach Todd Whetsel on Strong Rock’s defensive looks: “They played some ‘junk defense’ and threw a lot of box and one at us. A couple of different plays made some open shots — those were big plays in the fourth quarter.

Whetsel on the box and one defense: “It’s tough to prepare for. You don’t see it too much. It’s disruptive, angles are different. People that aren’t usually open are open. They’re obviously trying to take away something. It can be an effective strategy, we’ve used it from time to time. You just have to stay patient. Offensively, in the second, third and fourth quarter, we produced double figures. Obviously, the first quarter was not pretty to look at. We scored 35 points in basically three quarters so that’s a good effort.”

Whetsel on Tattnall’s scoreless first quarter: “We had good shots we just missed them. When the shots aren’t falling, I just tell them to suck it up and play defense.”

What’s next

Tattnall’s boys and girls teams play Lake Oconee on Thursday with the girls contest at 3 p.m. and the boys to follow. FPD’s girls play Strong Rock at noon. The girls and boys teams from Stratford and Union Grove will wrap up Thursday’s schedule with the girls game at 6 p.m. and boys to follow.