Poor free-throw shooting dooms Marysville
To field a winning basketball team, three skills in particular — shooting, rebounding and defense — jump to the forefront.
But if you have watched an NBA game lately, you probably have noticed how one important aspect of the game has fallen by the wayside in recent years — free-throw shooting.
On Friday night, it was poor shooting from the charity stripe that did in the Marysville High girls team as they sank just 6-of-22 shots from the line and fell 58-44 to visiting Encina in a Golden Empire League contest on homecoming night.
"We lost by 14, but we missed 16 free throws," said Marysville coach Ryan Heasty, whose club connected on just 5-of-18 shots from the line in the first half. "We were down by seven at the half, but if we hit those free throws, it would've been a different game."
After a slow start saw the Indians spot Encina an 18-10 lead after one quarter, Marysville (7-15, 3-6) responded with a 5-0 spurt to open the second to get back in the game.
And although they struggled against the Bulldogs' full-court pressure in the first eight minutes, the Indians were able to repeatedly break Encina's press in the second period and picked up numerous blocking calls in the process to get into the bonus early.
Julia Findley scored five points and Alex Tanner and Camille Crane added four points each in the period and Marysville trimmed the Bulldog lead to just two points, 24-22, late in the first half.
However Encina guard Jackea Johnson, who finished with a game-high 22 points, drained two 3-pointers just before intermission and the Bulldogs took a 30-23 lead into the locker room.
The score could have been much closer, but the Indians connected on just 5-of-15 shots from the charity stripe in the quarter, most of which they spent in double-bonus.
While the Bulldogs (16-8, 7-2) were free-wheeling in first half, they went a different direction by going down low to Christina Fletcher to open the second. Fletcher, who was easily the biggest player on the court, made the Indians pay by tallying 10 points in the paint during the third period to give the Bulldogs a 46-32 lead into the fourth.
The Indians rallied to score buckets on three straight possessions midway through the fourth period to trim the lead to 12, but that was as close the home team would get as the Bulldogs controlled the clock for the rest of the game to close out the win.
Despite being outsized down low, Crane finished with a game-high 22 rebounds and MacKenzi Frost pulled down 12 boards of her own in a workmanlike effort in the paint.
"That's putting in a good night's work," Heasty said of the two seniors. "But when there's such a discrepancy in size, there's not much you can do."
The loss offset a solid effort from Tanner, who scored a team-high 17 points while playing tough defense on Encina's top scorer, Aiesha Warmack.
Warmack entered the contest averaging 18 points per game, but was limited to 13 points on the evening, six of which came in the final period.
"Alex had a great all-around game and she guarded their best player the entire time," Heasty said. "(Warmack) is one of the top two players in the league, but Alex shut her down defensively."
Crane chipped in 12 points to go along with her 22 boards and Frost finished with six points and nine defensive rebounds for the Indians. Findley finished with five points and Kaitlin Mazzei added four to complete the scoring.
"I'm very happy with the way they fought tonight," Heasty added. "They played hard all game, but it all came down to those missed free throws."
