First-half woes sink E-W

EDMONDS

Edmonds-Woodway couldn’t handle the pressure in the first half and it cost the Warriors dearly.

Jackson outscored the Warriors 29-11 in the first half en route to a convincing 63-44 victory in a Western Conference South Division girls basketball game Jan. 10 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

The Wolfpack sputtered to start the game, missing five straight shots on its first offensive possession. But it didn’t take long for Jackson to start connecting, while Edmonds-Woodway struggled to move the ball up the court against Jackson’s press and was forced into numerous turnovers. The Warriors turned the ball over 27 times.

“We tried to force a lot of passes that weren’t really there,” said Edmonds-Woodway senior center Erin Lauber. “When it came down to it, they have a really scrappy defense. We weren’t coming to the ball like we should have.”

After Edmonds-Woodway tied the score at 4 on a pair of free throws, the Timberwolves went on a 13-2 run and finished the quarter with a 17-6 advantage. It was more of the same in the second period as Jackson outscored Edmonds-Woodway 12-5.

“We had some experiences in the first half that we don’t like to have,” said Edmonds-Woodway head coach Wayne Edwards. “I don’t call them mistakes. I call them experiences because that’s how we learn.”

Edmonds-Woodway corrected some of those mistakes and played much better in the second half, he added.

The Warriors were only outscored 34-33 in the final two periods.

“We had a slow first half,” Lauber said. “But in the second half, we really played with a lot of heart.”

Unfortunately, problems with the press aren’t new to Edmonds-Woodway and it’s the primary area that the Warriors need to work on, said Edwards.

“We wanted to play well and play respectable basketball and I feel we did that in the second half,” he said. “We’ve spent a lot of time building on our handling of pressure. We haven’t handled it well all year, but we’re getting better with it. … We’ve had games where we haven’t been able to get it down the court until they backed it off.”

The loss marked the halfway point of the regular season, with Edmonds-Woodway currently third among the 4A teams with a 4-5 league record and 6-7 overall mark.

Lauber expects the Warriors to continue to improve and have a better second half of the regular season.

“We’ve improving every day and in every game,” she said. “I think we’re going to have a winning second half of the regular season.”

Added Edwards, “We feel like we can make playoffs and from there, who knows?”

Jackson senior guard Ashley Todd led all scorers with 16 points. Senior guard Ashly Bruns added 12 and sophomore guard Erin Feeney had 12, as did senior guard Kristi Kingma.

The Warriors were led by Lauber, who scored 14 points, and freshman Ashley Albertson, who had 11.

Jackson had an uncharacteristically tough night from the field, connecting on only 28 of 59 shots, while the Warriors were 14 for 39 from the field.

“We didn’t play too sharp tonight,” said Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson. “Credit Edmonds-Woodway’s half-court defense. They played very, very tough half-court defense and they pressured us into some things that we weren’t comfortable doing. Our passing wasn’t where it needed to be tonight and we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well. But the good thing was we rebounded hard and we were still able to get out on transition and get some steals. It helped us to be able to push the lead and get the win.”

Both Kingma and Thompson expect Edmonds-Woodway to be a tough team in the second half of the regular season, especially with their height.

“They’ll be good in the years to come and they’re already good,” Kingma said. “They have some big girls. That’s key for a team in Wesco because they’re able to block shots and just interfere with everything. I thought they did a really good job on us tonight.”