Fruitland girls stay perfect
Holt challenges team and team responds
By Ray Rodriguez
Argus Observer
Sunday, December 16, 2007 2:42 AM PST
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| Fruitland’s Kylee Nawahine (left) attempts to strip the ball away from a Homedale player while teammate Bridgette Teunissen looks on during the second half of their Snake River Valley Conference girls basketball game Friday in Fruitland. The Grizzlies won the game, 48-30. |
Fruitland - Faced with a challenge by head coach Beth Holt at halftime, the undefeated Fruitland girls basketball team responded the only way they know how — defense.
The defense held Homedale to 14 second half points on their way to the 48-30 win in Snake River Valley Conference girls basketball action Friday in Fruitland.
“We made some mental adjustments because we did not come ready to play tonight,” Holt said. “We were not focused. I was shocked we even had the lead at halftime, but we did. We talked about going out and winning the third quarter and I was pleased they came out in the second half and executed better.”
While the defense was holding serve, Grizzly standouts Kylee Nawahine and Bridgette Teunissen each scored six second half points to increase what was a slim 21-16 halftime cushion.
Fruitland went on a 13-5 third quarter run and led 34-21 after 24 minutes of play. The spurt continued in the final stanza and at one point, the lead swelled to 24 midway through.
“Second half, we just didn’t execute,” Homedale head coach Jeremy Chamberlain said. “We tried to make a few adjustments and it looked like they were going to work, but we just didn’t execute them properly. Fruitland stepped things up a little bit and we didn’t answer.”
Homedale committed 26 turnovers, the Grizzlies grabbed nine steals and held a 28-16 rebounding edge.
Teunissen finished with a team-high 13 points and Nawahine ended the evening with 10 points and three steals, for the Grizzlies which had seven different players score field goals.
Hailey Felgenhauer was her usual steady self scoring eight points and grabbing a team-high eight boards, while teammate Ashley Holt added seven points.
Even with an unblemished 10-0 record, Holt has yet to see her squad play complete game and know her team will face some tougher competition as the season wears on.
“These girls have set some high goals for this team and it’s a learning experience,” the coach said. “They need to learn if they want to get where they want to go, they have to bring their ‘A’ game every night. Hopefully they learn from it and this doesn’t happen again.”
