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Shady Spring – Offense was hard to come by Tuesday and Shady Spring made it even harder on itself.
Turning the ball over 24 times, the Tigers never found a groove, falling 42-31 against Independence in the Class AAA Region 3 tournament at Shady Spring High School.
The win sends Independence to the region semis where it will face top-seeded Greenbrier East on Friday in Fairlea.
For Indy, the No. 9 seed, the win was largely a product of stifling defense as the Patriots shot 25 percent (14 of 57) from the field but generated 26 more shot attempts between their 15 offensive rebounds and 16 steals.
“Their guard play without Kendra (Pizzino) is a little different so we thought pressuring would give us the best advantage,” Indy head coach Mark Cuthbert said.
True to form, pressures and traps stifled the Tigers early, jump-starting Indy’s offense.
Trailing 3-0, Indy knotted the game on a Harmony Mills 3 off of a turnover, taking the lead when another turnover led to a Kassidy Bradbury layup.
Trailing 6-5 near the end of the opening frame. Mills turned another turnover into a score, a growing trend. She carried that momentum into the second quarter, nailing a 3 and adding a layup to push the Indy advantage to 12-6.
Shady battled back with a 9-2 run, capped by an Austyn Barnes 3, for a 15-14 but four consecutive Lacey Goodson free throws turned the tide again with the sophomore scoring Indy’s last six points of the half.
Shady remained within striking distance early in the third before Indy made a run. Ahead 23-20, Goodson nailed another set of free throws followed by a layup from Zoey Bragg. Mills followed with a pair of makes from the charity stripe, capping a 9-0 run with a 3-pointer that pushed the advantage to 32-20.
“She’s a tough player,” Shady assistant coach Tabitha Barnes said, filling in for head coach Tracy Raban who missed Monday’s game due to a family emergency. ”She’s hard to guard and we tried to take turns guarding her. We tried to get over top of those picks and when we did, it worked and when we couldn’t get there, she can let it rip from pretty much anywhere.”
Shady trailed by double digits the rest of the way, managing more turnovers (12) than shot attempts (nine).
“Our defense, we trapped there in the second half and were all over,” Cuthbert said. “ We turned defense into offense. When you’re not very good in the half-court sets, you have to turn defense into offense, and that’s what we ended up doing.”
Mills led all scorers with 24 points, adding seven rebounds while Lacey Goodson netted 14 points.
Austyn Barnes was the only Tiger in double figures with 10 points. In the loss there was a silver lining for coach Barnes who served as the head coach in the two season prior to Raban’s arrival. Tuesday’s game gave her the opportunity to coach her daughter Austyn one last time.
“I did think about that. It’s pretty cool but I’m so glad she got to play under Tracy this year. But it was good to get to coach her again. But now I know why I don’t coach,” Coach Bares laughed.
I: 7 13 12 10 – 42
SS: 6 11 5 9 – 31
Independence
Zoey Bragg 2, Harmony Mills 24, Lacey Goodson 14, Kassidy Bradbury 2
Shady Spring
Meagan Hendrick 9, Austyn Barnes 10, Skylar Gibson 9, Peyton Raban 1, Claire Wilson 2
