Switzerland County traveled to Greensburg to take on North Decatur for a Saturday afternoon tilt; and again a slow start to the game for the Lady Pacers – and a quick start by North Decatur – impacted the outcome of the game.
North Decatur jumped out early, leading 21-6 after the first quarter, and cruised from there for a 53-29 win.
The Lady Pacers played the Lady Chargers tough for the final three periods, being outscored 14-10 in the second quarter; winning the third quarter by a 7-6 count; and then trailing in the final stanza 12-6.
“You know, from the box scores it doesn’t look like we’re making any progress, but we are,” Coach Ashley Chase said. “I thought we did a lot better job on Saturday after the loss to Owen County on Wednesday. The effort was there. We just had a quarter where we didn’t handle the pressure, and we got a little unnerved.”
Coach Chase said getting down early in the first quarter forced her squad to spend the rest of the game battling just to get even; and she was proud of the effort that she saw her team give.
“We cut the lead a couple of times, but we never could capitalize off of those runs,” the coach said. “There were times when we hurt ourselves with a turnover or we didn’t covert after getting a rebound, but the effort was so much better.”
Coach Chase said that she has been telling her squad to concentrate on “taking two steps forward every game and not taking two steps back”, and that was something that she thought went wrong in the Owen County game on Wednesday that her team corrected on Saturday.
“We came out ready to play,” Coach Chase said. “I know the score doesn’t show it, but it’s those little successes that we keep harping on.”
Allie Mathews again led Switzerland County with 10 points; while Emily White continued her outstanding play with nine.
Eve Galbreath had four points; while Kelly Kincaid and Bre Ricketts had three each.
“Even though Kelly didn’t score much, I was really pleased with how she’s stepping up and into that leadership role that we need from her,” Coach Chase said. ‘It’s tough as she fights back from injury, but I’m really pleased with how she is leading this team. On Saturday I really saw her step into that role and stay positive throughout the entire game.”
The Lady Pacers now head into the “Rumble on the River” tournament at Southwestern next week, playing Fishers High School on Tuesday, December 27th, at 2 p.m.
Fishers is a Class 4A school from Indianapolis, and currently sports an overall record of 4-5. The Lady Tigers can generate offense, however, coming into the tournament averaging just over 70 points per contest.