MORGANTOWN — It wouldn’t have been surprising if the University girls’ basketball team might have been looking past John Marshall at home Tuesday night. After all, the Monarchs struggled so far on the young season, while the Hawks knew they had a big-time date with big-time rival Morgantown later in the week.
However, good defense has a way of helping teams escape from trap games, and UHS’s intense man-to-man pressure smothered JM throughout the first half, powering University to an 11-0 start, an 18-point halftime lead and a semi-comfortable 66-50 victory.
From the opening tip, UHS (3-0) maintained energy and effort against the Monarchs (0-3), leading to multiple turnovers and transition lay-ups. JM didn’t score its first point until almost five minutes had been played, and it didn’t score its first field goal until just over a minute remained in the first quarter. Up by 19-8, the Hawks didn’t back off at all, constantly denying entry passes to the Monarchs’ bigs down low and getting nine points each from Lauren Dean and Ella Simpson to build a healthy 36-18 lead at the break.
But a very sloppy start to the second half on both ends of the court by the Hawks gave John Marshall life, as UHS allowed the Monarchs offense access to the middle, resulting in a whopping 27 free throw opportunities. A dozen mostly unforced turnovers by the UHS offense in the second half didn’t help matters, so when John Marshall pulled to within 10 at 49-39 with 6:15 left in the final quarter, what looked to be a rout had become quite a bit tighter.
That’s when Dean put an end to any thoughts of a JM upset, as the senior drove hard to the rim, absorbed contact and floated a high arcing bank shot for a huge and-1 bucket, converted the 3-point play, then stripped the inbounds play and scored again. The Monarchs would never threaten again, as Simpson scored seven down the stretch (for a game-high 20) to ice it for the Hawks.
“We followed the script to a T in the first half,” UHS first-year coach Nick Lusk said after the win. “We controlled the tempo, denied them any flow to their half-court offense, and pushed the ball up the court. That’s just the way we need to play — fast, clean, quick, controlled. But whether we just figured the game was over, or we just got complacent, we let them back in the game, and John Marshall played well and took control at times in the second half. And we can’t let that happen.
“Lauren and Ella stepped up when we needed them to, and of course, we’re always happy with a win. But this game will be very helpful from a learning perspective for our team, because it showed them what can happen when we play the right way as well as what we need to correct. And it’s all correctable stuff. It’s early yet, and there’s a long way to go, but we’re showing signs that we’re getting there.”
In the JV game, Lyla Byers scored a game-high 17 points and Julia Maisel chipped in 11 as the Hawks smothered the Monarchs 47-22.
University travels across town on Thursday night to face Morgantown, with the tip scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
JOHN MARSHALL 8 10 16 16 – 50
UNIVERSITY 19 17 12 18 – 66
JOHN MARSHALL (0-3)
Kayli Derrow 3 5-9 11 Catherine Hunnell 4 1-2 9 Ava Blake 0 1-2 1 Landyn Helms 5 5-6 17 Lilie Babiczuk 3 1-2 7 Kaitlyn Blake 1 3-6 5 Totals 16 16-27 50
UNIVERSITY (3-0)
Ashlyn Weaver 4 0-2 10 Emily Sharkey 3 0-0 6 Lauren Dean 6 4-5 16 Ella Simpson 8 4-6 20 Aza Boateng 2 1-2 5 Hannah Stemple 3 0-0 7 Eden Gibson 1 0-0 2 Totals 27 9-15 66
3-pointers – JM 2 (Helms), UHS 3 (Stemple, Weaver 2)
