If you saw the first 7 minutes of Monday’s TMB girls’ regular-season finalé against Canby, there’s no way you would guess the outcome would’ve come down to the final seconds. But that’s exactly what transpired, as the Panthers overcame an early 13-point deficit to make the Lancers sweat.
Unfortunately, the home team’s rally fell agonizingly short in a 48-45 Camden Conference loss.
“I felt like we were a little bit off early on,” TMB coach Derek Ashbaugh said. “It would’ve been easy given the last four or five games we’ve played to say, ‘Tonight’s not our night, let’s just move on,’ but they didn’t. This group has plenty of fight to them.”
The Lancers were in charge early, as they hit four threes in the first 5 minutes to build a 17-4 advantage. However, the last 11 minutes belonged to the Panthers. TMB cranked up the defense and outscored Canby 8-4 in that time span to trail by just nine going into the break.
“I think we had more patience offensively, and our defense kind of settled down,” Ashbaugh said. “We didn’t really follow our assignments early on, and they hit a few shots. We hung in there and fought back. Honestly, we were lucky to be only down by nine at halftime.”
TMB held onto its momentum in the second half, cutting the Lancers’ lead to five with a Gretchen Lanoue layup. But a trend developed, as the closer the Panthers got, the better the Lancers’ shooting became.
“Canby did a nice job — we’d get it down to a four- or five-point game and they would hit a big shot,” Ashbaugh said. “That’s a very, very veteran team; I’ve seen those kids on scouting reports for about three or four years. It’s a very experienced and connected team.”
Canby hit a three after Lanoue’s layup, and then another a bit later after Melaina Ankrum once again trimmed TMB’s deficit to five. That prevented the Panthers from being able to tie the game or take a lead. But they wouldn’t go away, either.
Lanoue scored four quick points to once again pull TMB to within five points with 1:07 left, and they had the ball with the chance to cut into the lead even more, but committed a turnover with just under 1 minute to go.
With :34 left, Ankrum turned a steal into two points to make it 48-45, and the Lancers gave the ball right back to TMB with :23 to go. However, TMB turned the ball right back over on an inbounds pass and were forced to foul. Addison Driessen missed the front end of a 1-and-1, giving the Panthers one last chance to tie it, but Alli Dolan’s three-point attempt from the top of the key was just off, leaving the Panthers with their fifth straight loss.
“As the girls kind of clawed back into it … one missed rebound here, one missed shot there — that’s unfortunately what is keeping us from finding the winner’s circle right now,” said Ashbaugh.
Lanoue led the way for TMB with 12 points, and Ankrum and Dolan scored 11 and 10 points, respectively. Ankrum pulled down eight rebounds, and Lanoue seven, and Lauren Knakmuhs scored six points to go along with five rebounds.
The difference in the game came from the three-point line, where Canby made eight of 27 shots from long range (30%), while TMB was just 2-for-16 (13%).
The Panthers are now 8-16 overall and 5-10 in the Camden, and will play in a Section 3 play-in game on Thursday, but it has yet to be determined where that game will be played. Seedings for the section tournament are next week.
Canby 21 27 — 48 TMB 12 33 — 45 Canby
Nelson 2-9 0-0 6, Driessen 3-7 0-2 7, Jelen 0-3 0-0 0, Jostock 0-1 0-0 0, Kockelman 5-16 0-1 14, Thovson 2-3 1-2 5, Danielson 5-11 1-2 12 Weber 2-5 0-0 4. Totals: 19-55 2-7 48. Three-pointers: 8-27. Assists: 17. Rebounds: 33. Steals: 5. Turnovers: 15. TMB
4, Adams 1-4 0-0 2, Dolan 3-14 2-4 10, Anderson 0-3 0-0 0. Totals: 20-53 3-6 45. Three-pointers: 2-16 (Dolan 2-6, Anderson 0-2, Adams 0-2, Lanoue 0-2, Knakmuhs 0-1, Ankrum 0-3). Assists: 13 (Ankrum 5, Lanoue 4, Adams 2, Kankmuhs, Dolan).
Rebounds: 32 (Ankrum 8, Lanoue 7, Knott 7, Knakmuhs 5, Dolan 2, Adams 2, Anderson). Steals: 7 (Ankrum 5, Lanoue, Kankmuhs). Turnovers: 13.
Lanoue 6-9 0-0 12, Ankrum 5-13 1-1 11, Knakmuhs 3-7 0-1 6, Knott 2-3 0-0
FEB. 7: HB-C 67, TMB 49
TMB shot just 18% (5-for-28) from two-point range a 67-49 nonconference setback to Hills-Beaver Creek last Friday.
Gretchen Lanoue had 19 points to lead the way for TMB. Melaina Ankrum scored nine points, and had seven assists, six rebounds and five steals. Lauen Knakmuhs added eight points, and Alli Dolan seven in the loss.
FEB. 5: LAKEVIEW 60, TMB 51
The Panthers lost at Lakeview last Thursday, 60-51, in Camden Conference action.
Gretchen Lanoue scored 20 points, and had eight steals and four rebounds, and Melaina Ankrum had nine assist, seven points and three steals for TMB, which shot just 26% from the field.
Lauren Knakmuhs had six points, and Braelynn Kirk and Alli Dolan both netted five.
