Kamiak overcomes Cascade
Published 10:50 am Thursday, November 29, 2007
MUKILTEO — Dribble, pass, shoot.
The fundamentals of James Naismith’s game seem fairly straightforward, but executing them can be anything but.
Throw in two head coaches making their debuts with their respective schools and the evening resulted in a sloppy 49-46 Kamiak win in a non-league contest at Kamiak High School Wednesday night.
The Bruins and the Knights certainly had trouble with their execution and both seemed to struggle in adjusting to their respective coach’s new systems.
“First-game jitters — new system. I think it all kind of hit us at once,” said Cascade coach Carlos Humphrey. “I can tell you now I know what we do need to work on. I chalk it up to (throwing) a lot of stuff at them at once.”
The teams combined for 25 first half turnovers — ten for Kamiak and 15 for Cascade. Despite their subpar ball-handling, the Bruins’ half-court trap created problems for host Kamiak.
“We knew they were going to come at us with that half-court trap,” Kamiak head coach Jody Schauer said. “We just talked about it and knew they were going to do that, but in the second half we adjusted to it. We talked about it at halftime and set up a better game plan.”
The Knights were also playing without starting wing Michelle Lipscomb who aggravated a knee injury during warm-ups and did not play.
“I think the girls were kind of thrown for a loop tonight losing a starter,” Schauer said. “That was a really big blow to the team and I think psychologically it affected the rest of the team.”
Cascade led 11-10 at the end of the first quarter, but Kamiak stormed back to outscore the Bruins 17-12 in the second.
With the game knotted at 23 and a minute left before the intermission, the Knights stole two straight passes and converted them to layups for the 27-23 halftime lead.
Kamiak settled down somewhat in the second half, committing just four turnovers to the Bruins’ 10.
“We started passing a little bit better, we started playing as a team a little bit better, plus we got more aggressive ourselves,” Schauer said.
After Cascade scored to make it 35-33 with one minute left in the third quarter, the Kamiak defense really hunkered down, holding the Bruins scoreless until 3:03 left in the fourth.
“Our defense stepped up when they needed to, in the first half and the second half,” Schauer said. “We kept changing it up as well.”
A Kelsey Patrick three-pointed extended the Knights’ lead to 46-33 with 3:27 to go, but then the Bruins mounted a comeback of their own. Danielle Love converted both free throws after a Kamiak flagrant foul and Maddie Molenda hit a three-pointer on the ensuing possession to make it 46-41 with two minutes left.
The teams traded free throws, but the Bruins couldn’t quite get over the hump as Kamiak held on for the victory.
Patrick finished with 15 points and eight rebounds and Julia Church added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Kamiak.
Cascade’s Love had 18 points to lead all scorers.
At Kamiak High School
Cascade11121013 — 46
Kamiak10171111 — 49
Cascade — Condotta, Gross 10, Hayden, Joyce, D. Love 18, Molenda 4, Nelson 6, Shattuck, Smith 8. Kamiak — Church 11, Keller 6, Kussman 9, Patrick 15, Simmons 3, Sovich 3, Taglialavore 2. Records—Kamiak 1-0. Cascade 0-1.
