New Plymouth and Fruitland go to the wire on hardwood
Lady Grizzlies defeat Lady Pilgrims 52-47
By Scott Ford
Argus Observer
scottf@argusobserver.com
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 10:58 AM PST
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| Scott Ford | Argus Observer
New Plymouth’s Sienna Edmunson (left) dribbles the rock near mid-court Tuesday against a Fruitland defender late in the second quarter as the Lady Pilgrims attempted a comeback in a non-conference tilt against the Grizzlies. Fruitland, however, held on for the 52-47 victory. |
New Plymouth— In a non-conference inter-county rivalry, the New Plymouth girls basketball team hosted the Fruitland Lady Grizzlies Tuesday.
After an intense display of defense and determination, by both teams, it was Fruitland that came out on top, 52-47, as the Grizzlies out-paced the Lady Pilgrims down the stretch.
“We have a really good rivalry with New Plymouth,” Fruitland head coach Beth Holt said. “We expect them to come out exactly how they did, with great defense. They are a tenacious and scrappy team.”
Fruitland controlled the contest early with an 11-4 run in the opening quarter of play, but the Lady Pilgrims were not going to roll over and let the visiting team run them out of their own gym and bounced back with 14-9 run in the second stanza to keep the contest close at the intermission, trailing 20-18.
Coming out of the break, the Lady Grizzlies hit the hardwood with the hot hand and pumped in 20 third quarter points to New Plymouth’s 11 to extend their lead to 40-29.
“In the first half, I felt they controlled the tempo,” Holt said. “In the second half,we wanted to control the ball better, and we did a pretty good job of that.”
However, once again, the Lady Pilgrims rose to the occasion. In the final quarter of play, New Plymouth opened with a 13-3 run, which made the score 43-42 with just more than four minutes remaining in regulation.
Then, with two and a half minutes left to play, the Lady Pilgrims tied the game at 45 on a Sienna Edmunson free throw.
However, down the stretch, Fruitland proved to be a little too much for the Lady Pilgrims as they closed out the game on a 7-2 run for the final tally.
“We just have to hit some shots,” New Plymouth head coach Denise Oliver said. “We did a good job on defense, and we rebounded well.”
For the game, the Lady Pilgrims were sent to the charity stripe 31 times and made 19 of those shots.
“We fouled them way too much,” Holt said.
Leading New Plymouth was Edmunson with 20 points, and for Fruitland it was Hailey Felgenhauer with 19 points.
“Fruitland is a good defensive team. They put a lot of pressure on you. They are bigger and stronger than we are. I am pleased with our effort tonight,” Oliver said. “Every time we play a close game it is a positive thing.”
New Plymouth will travel to Payette for a 7:45 p.m. tip off on Tuesday, while Fruitland will host Vale at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
