Crescent-News.com - Gonzales, treys lead DHS past PH

By JASON STEIN
cnsports@crescent-news.com

In a game that started out looking eerily similar to their first game of the season, it turned out to be an exciting late, fourth-quarter triumph as the Defiance Lady Bulldogs clawed their way back from an early 14-point deficit to knock off Patrick Henry 59-52 in their home opener.

Defiance drained 9-of-18 treys in the contest, including three in the final two and a half minutes to seal the victory and improve to 1-1 on the young season.

"I was thinking the same thing, a repeat of Friday," said Defiance head coach Amy Unverferth. "Our problem is we give up too much dribble penetration. In the beginning of the game they had easy shots, and they missed an outside shot but the rebound back in. After that first few minutes, we actually started rebounding, stopped penetration a little bit better, so defensively we started to play a little bit better, which led to our offense picking up."

Patrick Henry shot lights out in the first quarter, making six straight field goal attempts after its first miss, and pressuring the home team into making mistake after mistake. Led by Tiffany Ehlers, who scored nine of her team-high 17 points in the first eight minutes, the Lady Patriots led by as much as 24-10 but Defiance, which committed eight first-quarter turnovers and came up with just four rebounds, settled down late in the first and turned their fortunes around in the second quarter.

The Lady "Dogs outscored their opponent 13-6 in the second stanza, shrinking a PH 10-point lead down to just three points by halftime.

"We've been having that problem the whole year," commented PH's head coach, Paul Phillips. "We do it in spurts and then everyone takes time off. One person gets a little lazy here or there and the next thing you know they've made their run and that's what kills basketball teams. You have to play all 32 minutes out there and we're just not doing it."

Mikaela Tolbert had five points in the quarter before the Patriots added anything in their scoring column, and following Ehlers two points on a drive, Defiance answered with a pair of Jaide Hoellrich free throws to cut the PH lead to 21-26, and treys from Riedel and Gonzales, who combined for seven 3-point bombs on the night, to make the score 27-30 by the end of two quarters.

"We picked up our fundamentals," said Unverferth of the difference between the first and second quarters. "Basically our on-ball defense got a little bit better and we definitely looked to check out and go after the ball aggressively."

Just like that, Defiance was right back in the ballgame with one half to play.

Hoellrich scored nine third-quarter points, including a two-point bucket from the wing to finish off one of Kiersten Lehman's seven assists which gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the contest, 39-38 with 20 seconds left to play in the third.

Already with eight points and two threes in the contest, the fourth-quarter scoring belonged to Gonzales.

After Gonzales sent a perfect lob over a defender and into the hands of Anna Schrag, who finished the play with an easy 2-point bucket to tie the game up at 46-46, the 5-foot junior came up big from beyond the arc ... twice.

The first three, her third of the night, followed a steal by Riedel on the defensive end. Gonzales was eventually found wide open on the 3-point side of the arc and without hesitation, drained the three to put Defiance on top for the third time in the game, 49-46 with just under 2:30 remaining.

Ehlers pulled PH to within one following her team calling a timeout, but the Bulldogs would come up with an ever bigger play as Unverferth was forced to use one of her time-outs when one of her players was struggling to find someone to move the ball to.

Coming out of the brief break in action and with Lehman inbounding the ball from under her own basket, Gonzales came streaking across the court, through a screen, and into deadly territory. Lehman quickly passed her the ball, and for the second time in less than a minute, she buried the three to put the crowd into a frenzy and pushing the lead to 52-48 with 1:58 left to play.

"That's one of our options is for Gabby to come off the screen for a 3-point shot," Unverferth said of the set play coming out of the timeout. "She was a little bit cold in scrimmages and Napoleon, but man she played great tonight. When she gets her feet set, she has a great three-point shot."

"We just needed to come back and everybody was getting me open, so I just had to come through for them," added Gonzales of her big night. "We knew they were going to gamble and try to get every ball, so we just tried to slow the pace of the game down and that got us open and made people open. Those are easier shots if you're open."

Saige Meyer and Ashley Christman each scored for PH on either side of a pair of misses at the line from Hoellrich, with Christman's bucket knotting the game at 52-52 with one minute remaining in the game, but the Bulldogs were not going to be denied.

With 41 seconds on the clock, Gonzales found Tolbert on the wing where she made the mid-range jumper to quickly give the home team back the lead.
Then following a Meyer miss and a Lehman rebound, Hoellrich launched up a three-point shot instead of holding the ball and waiting to be fouled or running out the clock.

With chants of "No" echoing through the building and Unverferth with her hands on her head, the senior drained the three and quickly turned those shouts of "No's" into cheers as her three sealed the deal with 10 seconds remaining.

While not a situation that her coach would of liked, the three capped off another solid night for the senior who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds and continues to show improved play for the Bulldogs.

"She's a completely different player this year than she was last year," remarked Unverferth. "She defintely leads us on the offensive end as far as wanting to score. We have good offensive players but not all of them have the confidence to penetrate as hard as she does."

"You've got to be confident," said Hoellrich of her play, which has seen her score in double figures in both games this year and drive hard to the basket to generate free throws. "You have to have that confidence because if you don't, you're not going to do anything.

"We get good shots off sometimes, Gabby is a really good three-point shooter. My last one was kind of iffy, but you have to do what you have to do."

Gonzales, who chipped in with four assists, four rebounds and three steals, made two free throws to cap off her 18-point performance which included a perfect 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter.

Riedel added 11 points and three steals for Defiance while Emily McGraw added 11 points and six rebounds for PH.

Definace, whose JV team dropped to 0-2 with a 25-21 loss to PH, weclomes Celina to town a week from Thursday when they open up Western Buckeye League play.

The Lady Patriots (0-2) host Wauseon on Friday.

BOX SCORE
PATRICK HENRY (52) " Ehlers 17; McGraw 11; Christman 8; Meyer 6; Seemann 5; Hoffman 3; Gebers 2; Badenhop 0. Totals 23-55 2-6 52
DEFIANCE (59) " Gonzales 18; Hoellrich 14; Riedel 11; Tolbert 9; Schrag 4; Tumblin 3; Lehman 0. Totals 20-48 10-15 59.

Three-point goals: Patrick Henry 4-16 (Christman, Ehlers, Hoffman, Seemann), Defiance 9-18 (Gonzales 4, Riedel 3, Hoellrich, Tumblin).

Rebounds: Patrick Henry 25 (McGraw 6), Defiance 29 (Hoellrich 7, Tolbert 6, Schrag 5).

Turnovers: Patrick Henry 15, Defiance 17.

Patrick Henry 24 6 8 14 - 52
Defiance 14 13 12 20 - 59

Reserves: Patrick Henry, 25-21.