MANSFIELD, Ohio — St. Peter’s learned a valuable lesson Tuesday night against state-ranked South Central. At least Spartans’ coach Shani Rush hopes so after the Trojans sailed to a 75-47 win at the Franciscan Activity Center.
The Spartans (10-8) and Trojans (20-0) were tied 8-8 midway through the first quarter before St. Peter’s came unglued. South Central (SC) ripped off a 10-0 run to end the period and never looked back.
“We can play better. We just panicked a little bit,” Rush said after watching her team turn the ball over five times during the decisive first-quarter run. “We haven’t seen that kind of pressure yet this year.
“It’s good for us. We needed this game to get ready for the tournament.”
For the first five minutes the Spartans went toe-to-toe with the SC, ranked fifth in Division IV in the most recent Associated Press state poll. But the turnovers (nine in the first quarter) began to mount as St. Peter’s repeatedly tried — unsuccessfully — to throw over the top of the long and athletic Trojans.
“At the very beginning we were running everything right,” Rush said. “We were running what we were supposed to run but then all of the sudden we went away from it, thinking we could dribble through it.
“We needed to go back to what we were doing that worked.”
South Central blew it open in the second quarter, outscoring St. Peter’s 20-8 for a 38-16 halftime advantage. Desiree Kilgore scored seven of her 15 points in the period. All-Ohioan Anna Hintz, a 6-foot-1 do-it-all senior wing, had 10 first-half point, as did sophomore guard Summer Sweeting. Hintz and Sweeting led SC with 17 points apiece.
“We had some balanced scoring today. That’s huge if we can do that,” SC coach Becky Hintz said. “There isn’t only one or two people who can score. Everyone can score and that is huge. We’ve got to keep building on that.”
Makenzie Hendrickson topped St. Peter’s with 11 points. Victoria Keller and Jacque Baith each had eight.
Pressure: South Central forced 23 turnovers, resulting in several run-out opportunities. The Trojans rely on their defensive pressure to create offense.
“Of course Anna, but Summer can jump and she’s got a long arm span,” Hintz said. “She gets a lot of deflections.”
Tune-up: The Trojans have two regular season games remaining. SC hosts Plymouth on Saturday before hosting Crestview on Feb. 19. The state-ranked Cougars’ only loss this season came against South Central on Jan. 10.
“We’ve got to stay focused, that’s the thing,” Hintz said. “We’ve got to keep working hard. We do a great job of playing as a team.”
Sidelined: The Spartans were without 6-footer Kim Tomchak. The senior is out with a concussion.
“She (would have) helped a lot playing this team,” Rush said. “We need to get her back and healthy.”
The Spartans return to action Thursday at Kidron Central Christian.
Junior Varsity: South Central cruised to a 48-17 win in junior varsity action.
“We haven’t seen that kind of pressure yet this year. It’s good for us. We needed this game to get ready for the tournament,” said Coach Shari Rush.
