When Boone Central/Newman Grove and Scotus meet on the court for girls basketball action, you can count on an intense, often low-scoring defensive donnybrook.
Thursday’s 38-34 Scotus victory over the Cardinals certainly followed that script. After trailing BCNG early, the Shamrocks turned to a sagging 1-3-1 zone and gained just enough of an edge by limiting the Cards to 11 total points in the second and third quarters.
BCNG could convert only 31 percent of its field goal attempts in the contest and, fatally, made just 1-of-17 3-point tries. Scotus (8-8) actually made only 10-of-32 2-point attempts (31%), but sank 4-of-10 beyond the arc.
“We had a better start against Scotus and took a 9-5 lead midway in the first quarter,” Cardinal Coach Andy Imus noted. “Scotus switched to a 1-3-1 zone, with an emphasis on taking away the lane, and ran with that defense the remainder of the game.
“Our poor perimeter shooting allowed Scotus to stay in the zone. Any time you can’t hit shots, the zone looks good. If we could have gotten a couple to fall, we would have softened up the middle and allowed better driving lanes.
“In the second half, we moved some players around offensively and had some success with that. The bottom line is we need to hit shots vs. the zone.”
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