Nothing was falling for the Panther girls in Saturday’s home matinee against Heron Lake Okabena-Fulda, and their struggles from the field resulted in a 58-45 non-conference loss. It was TMB’s fourth straight loss in December after a 2-0 start.
TMB coach Derek Ashbaugh said the effort from his senior-less team has been there all along, and the girls are doing things well and improving, but “there are a lot of simple things that we’re not mentally either staying focused with or being able to finish with. That’s one of the last, tough hurdles for young teams like us to try to get over.”
The Coyotes were making everything early on from inside and out, as they built at early lead. Not helping matters for the Panthers was the lid on their basket. TMB made just three of its first 20 shots, and HLO-F slowly increased its lead, three-pointer by three-pointer.
“They scorched the nets from the outset — some of that’s they’re very good shooters and some of that is us letting them have good looks,” said Ashbaugh. “They have several kids that can hit shots.”
HLOF’s lead reached 23 points at the 4:50 mark of the first half before a three-point play by Gretchen Lanoue made it 3212 with 4:36 left. However, HLO-F’s final three of the first half brought its lead back to 23 points.
GRETCHEN LANOUE boxes out her HLO-F opponent.
BRAELYNN KIRK splits a pair of HLO-F defenders in the paint in an off-balanced shot attempt.
“We had a couple stretches where we really responded well and forcing them to have to play defense,” Ashbaugh said. “I thought we had some other stretches where we got shot happy. That comes back to that experience thing.”
However, the script flipped a bit later in the first half. The Coyotes scored just seven points over the final 5:20 of the half, and five free throws helped the Panthers scratch away at their deficit. A bucket by Alli Dolan, one by Taylor Munson, four free throws by Melaina Ankrum and another from Munson cut TMB’s deficit to 12 before an HLO-F buzzer-beater made it a 14-point margin at the half.
“There were times when we really controlled things,” Ashbaugh said. “But then we had stretches where we lost track of that and kind of fell into what they were doing.”
The second half was no work of art by either team. Both teams struggled from the field and had problems holding onto the ball. The teams combined for a total of just 10 points over the first 6:58 of the second half.
Four straight points from Dolan made it a 42-31 game with just over 11 minutes to go, but that was as close as TMB would get, as its struggles from the field persisted throughout the remainder of the game.
For the game, TMB shot just 16.2% from the field and made just one of 27 three-point attempts. More than half of its points (24) came from the free throw line.
Lanoue had a doubledouble with 16 rebounds and 13 points, and Ankrum scored 14 points and seven steals and six rebounds. Alli Dolan added 10 points in just 15 minutes.
• TMB’s B-squad fell to HLO-F 41-26. Avery Anderson led the way with 13 points, and Mesa Edwards finished with six.
HLOF 58, TMB 45 HLOF
Reynolds 1-7 0-0 3, L. Hendel 6-11 0-1 11, Saltentiny 5-14 1-2 15, A. Hendel 0-3 0-0 0, Relerson 4-13 2-2 12, Kuch 1-4 0-0 2, Freking 0-4 0-0 0, RIsher 1-5 0-1 2, Hoonhorts 6-10 0-0 12. Totals: 17-42 3-8 58. Assists: 14. Rebounds: 53. Steals: 11. Blocks: 4. Turnovers: 16.
TMB
Lanoue 2-15 9-11 13, Ankrum 4-15 6-6 14, Munson 1-10 1-2 3, Kirk 0-11 5-8 5, Knakmuhs 0-3 0-0 0, Knott 0-2 0-2 0, Adams 0-2 0-0 0, Dolan 3-7 3-4 10. Totals: 9-38 24--33 56. Three-pointers: 1-27 (Dolan 1-5, Kirk 0-6, Munson 0-6, Lanoue 0-4, Ankrum 0-3), Knakmuhs 0-2, Adams 0-1). Assists: 4 (Ankrum 2, Lanoue, Kirk). Rebounds: 58 (Lanoue 16, Knott 11, Kirk 7, Ankrum 6, Munson 4, Knakmuhs 3, Dolan 2, Adams). Steals: 14 (Ankrum 7, Kirk 3, Knakmuhs 2, Lanoue, Munson, Adams). Blocks: 1 (Knott). Turnovers: 19.
DEC. 12: CANBY 60, TMB 38 The Panthers were outscored 36-19 in the second half of a 60-38 Camden Conference loss to Canby last Friday.
Gretchen Lanoue had 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Melaina Ankrum scored nine points to go along with 10 rebounds.
TMB committed 24 turnovers, while the Lancers had just 15. The Panthers also shot just 26.3% from the field, and Canby shot 48.%
