It may sound bad, but it’s the simple truth for the 2010-11 Lady Knights
Following West Holmes’ 32-point win over Mansfield Madison on Thursday, Feb. 10, Lady Knights senior post player Lindsy Snyder said, “It sounds bad, but a game like this against Madison is like practice for us.”
What Snyder said may sound bad in Mansfield, but it’s also a simple truth, some of the lesser teams in the Ohio Cardinal Conference, really have provided nothing more than practice time for West Holmes (16-2) (13-0) during the 2010-11 season.
And while Lexington head coach Daryl Uhde might stomp his feet, clench his fists, contort his face – as he is known to do on the bench to illustrate his displeasure during ballgames – and do everything in his power to convince you that his Lady Lex (11-8) (7-7) team doesn’t belong on that list of West Holmes practice opponents, the simple truth is that after falling to the Lady Knights by 24 back on Jan. 8 and losing the rematch 60-39, Saturday, Feb. 12 in the Dungeon, Lexington does indeed belong on that list.
But give Uhde and the Lady Lex starting five credit, as they came out fired up for their matinee rematch against the Lady Knights on Feb. 12, holding West Holmes scoreless until the 3:30 mark of the opening quarter – when sophomore guard Justice Wright connected from beyond the arc to give the home team a 3-2 lead – and going into the second quarter down by only three, at 10-7.
By halftime Uhde’s crew would trail by 15, however, thanks to a 23-point West Holmes outburst started by freshman guard Paiten Strother, who hit for three from the right baseline to open the second period scoring and drained another triple-try on the Lady Knights next possession, from the exact same spot, to put West Holmes up 16-9.
“Paiten is one of those kids that you love to have on your team because not only can she defend their point guard, she can go defend a post player just as easily,” beamed West Holmes head coach Lisa Patterson after the game. “She is one tough cookie. She is a tough kid, and offensively she is finding her stroke. This past summer we saw her drain stuff left and right. We knew it was in her, it was just getting the confidence. This point in the season, you see her, she wants the ball, and it’s nice to see that.”
Following a Lindsy Snyder layup later in the second quarter, Strother would work from the inside, cleaning the glass on a Paige Asche missed 3-point attempt and hitting the stick back jumper to extend the West Holmes lead to 20-11.
“I’ve been hitting a couple of my shots and I feel good when I do it, and I just want to keep on shooting them,” said Strother after finishing in double-figures for the second straight game, pouring in 11 points to help lead West Holmes. “I’m feeling more confident too. It’s nice, they play zone against us and it leaves a lot of the girls on the perimeter open when they collapse in the middle. And if we reverse the ball fast, we can get good looks.”
Following a short jumper from freshman forward Laina Snyder and a pair from the line by freshman point guard Emily Molnar, Wright got another good look on the perimeter, connecting from three-point land for the second time and pushing the West Holmes lead to 27-13.
Wright would feed the younger Snyder under the basket for an easy layup toward the end of the half and Molnar would drain two more from the charity stripe, sending West Holmes into the break with a 33-18 lead, and allowing Patterson to get some important playing time for her JV bench brigade.
A jumper from the left elbow by Lexington’s Kate Hogsette cut the West Holmes lead to 33-20 at the beginning of period number three, but the Lady Knights responded with seven straight points – including a steal and coast-to-coast drive for a layup by Laina Snyder that caused Uhde to stomp his feet emphatically and grab the sides of his head in anguish – bookended by a bank shot off the glass and an inside layup by Lindsy Snyder that made the score 40-20 in favor of West Holmes.
“I usually give Lindsy a break whenever she needs it so that she can have fresh legs when she comes back in” explained 5-foot-11-inch junior Mariah Oswalt after logging significant minutes off of Patterson’s bench over the final two periods for the second straight game. “I just know I have to play my hardest and give it my all because my coach and my team is counting on me, and every little minute that I’m in, or second, is important. They tell me that and I know Lindsy likes the break too.”
As part of a trio of JV players that fill out Patterson’s 11-man varsity roster – including sophomore post Natalie Abraham and sophomore guard Maria Straits – Oswalt and company have played a significant role in the success of this year’s Lady Knights team and will continue to do so moving into tournament play, after garnering valuable varsity playing experience against teams like Madison and Lexington.
“They’ve done a great job for us,” said Patterson after the 21-point win over Lady Lex. “They don’t play the biggest minutes, but I’ve talked to those kids. They’re the kids that make us better because of practice. Those kids that don’t play huge minutes are very important to us because of practice time. They might not put points on the board in a game, but they put points on the board in practice against us. They are just as important as the five that start for us.”
And they are part of a bench crew that was able to outscore Lexington 25-0, after putting up 22 points against Madison while holding the Lady Rams to zero, causing Patterson to add, “Being able to sub kids in and out freely, and not losing anything, has been what’s really important for us.”
After putting in the final two points against Madison, Abraham missed the varsity game against Lexington, but after a triple splash from the senior, Asche opened the final period scoring, it opened the door for the third key player of Patterson’s JV/varsity cast to log some quality minutes.
“I try to take advantage of all the little minutes that I get because I usually go in for just a couple minutes,” explained Straits on the afternoon of her 16th birthday. “I’ve been going in for Paige lately and it just feels good to go out there and feel like I’m important after all the practices we go through.”
And whether they feel it or not, the roles Oswalt, Straits and Abraham play during tournament time will be extremely important, keeping the Lady Knights at the top of their game through hard-fought practices and allowing Patterson to rest her key players for several minutes here-and-there during the tourney grind.
“Maria does a really nice job whenever she plays against them [in practice]. She pushes them to work harder,” explained Oswalt. “I do a little bit of both – play on the other team and on our team – so I can help them get better too during the game, even if we don’t get the minutes.”
And that kind of positive attitude from those kinds of players are what can define a great team like West Holmes, ranked No. 6 in the state at the Division II level after trading 14 points apiece with Lexington the rest of the way to ice the 60-39 victory, as Strother split from the line after getting fouled by Lexington’s Ashley Stevens toward the middle of the quarter, finishing with 11 points to go along with the game-high 13 put up by Laina Snyder.
Hogsette and Alissa Munro each put up 10 to lead Lexington, but when Hogsette picked up her fifth foul, with the final seconds ticking away and the score 58-34 in favor of the Lady Knights, Uhde stomped halfway down the sideline, sounding like Frankenstein trying to do tap dance, as the fact that Lady Lex is nothing more than a good practice squad for the 2010-11 West Holmes girls maybe started to sink in.
And that may sound bad, if they’re reading this in Lexington, but it’s also the simple truth.
What Snyder said may sound bad in Mansfield, but it’s also a simple truth, some of the lesser teams in the Ohio Cardinal Conference, really have provided nothing more than practice time for West Holmes (16-2) (13-0) during the 2010-11 season.
And while Lexington head coach Daryl Uhde might stomp his feet, clench his fists, contort his face – as he is known to do on the bench to illustrate his displeasure during ballgames – and do everything in his power to convince you that his Lady Lex (11-8) (7-7) team doesn’t belong on that list of West Holmes practice opponents, the simple truth is that after falling to the Lady Knights by 24 back on Jan. 8 and losing the rematch 60-39, Saturday, Feb. 12 in the Dungeon, Lexington does indeed belong on that list.
But give Uhde and the Lady Lex starting five credit, as they came out fired up for their matinee rematch against the Lady Knights on Feb. 12, holding West Holmes scoreless until the 3:30 mark of the opening quarter – when sophomore guard Justice Wright connected from beyond the arc to give the home team a 3-2 lead – and going into the second quarter down by only three, at 10-7.
By halftime Uhde’s crew would trail by 15, however, thanks to a 23-point West Holmes outburst started by freshman guard Paiten Strother, who hit for three from the right baseline to open the second period scoring and drained another triple-try on the Lady Knights next possession, from the exact same spot, to put West Holmes up 16-9.
“Paiten is one of those kids that you love to have on your team because not only can she defend their point guard, she can go defend a post player just as easily,” beamed West Holmes head coach Lisa Patterson after the game. “She is one tough cookie. She is a tough kid, and offensively she is finding her stroke. This past summer we saw her drain stuff left and right. We knew it was in her, it was just getting the confidence. This point in the season, you see her, she wants the ball, and it’s nice to see that.”
Following a Lindsy Snyder layup later in the second quarter, Strother would work from the inside, cleaning the glass on a Paige Asche missed 3-point attempt and hitting the stick back jumper to extend the West Holmes lead to 20-11.
“I’ve been hitting a couple of my shots and I feel good when I do it, and I just want to keep on shooting them,” said Strother after finishing in double-figures for the second straight game, pouring in 11 points to help lead West Holmes. “I’m feeling more confident too. It’s nice, they play zone against us and it leaves a lot of the girls on the perimeter open when they collapse in the middle. And if we reverse the ball fast, we can get good looks.”
Following a short jumper from freshman forward Laina Snyder and a pair from the line by freshman point guard Emily Molnar, Wright got another good look on the perimeter, connecting from three-point land for the second time and pushing the West Holmes lead to 27-13.
Wright would feed the younger Snyder under the basket for an easy layup toward the end of the half and Molnar would drain two more from the charity stripe, sending West Holmes into the break with a 33-18 lead, and allowing Patterson to get some important playing time for her JV bench brigade.
A jumper from the left elbow by Lexington’s Kate Hogsette cut the West Holmes lead to 33-20 at the beginning of period number three, but the Lady Knights responded with seven straight points – including a steal and coast-to-coast drive for a layup by Laina Snyder that caused Uhde to stomp his feet emphatically and grab the sides of his head in anguish – bookended by a bank shot off the glass and an inside layup by Lindsy Snyder that made the score 40-20 in favor of West Holmes.
“I usually give Lindsy a break whenever she needs it so that she can have fresh legs when she comes back in” explained 5-foot-11-inch junior Mariah Oswalt after logging significant minutes off of Patterson’s bench over the final two periods for the second straight game. “I just know I have to play my hardest and give it my all because my coach and my team is counting on me, and every little minute that I’m in, or second, is important. They tell me that and I know Lindsy likes the break too.”
As part of a trio of JV players that fill out Patterson’s 11-man varsity roster – including sophomore post Natalie Abraham and sophomore guard Maria Straits – Oswalt and company have played a significant role in the success of this year’s Lady Knights team and will continue to do so moving into tournament play, after garnering valuable varsity playing experience against teams like Madison and Lexington.
“They’ve done a great job for us,” said Patterson after the 21-point win over Lady Lex. “They don’t play the biggest minutes, but I’ve talked to those kids. They’re the kids that make us better because of practice. Those kids that don’t play huge minutes are very important to us because of practice time. They might not put points on the board in a game, but they put points on the board in practice against us. They are just as important as the five that start for us.”
And they are part of a bench crew that was able to outscore Lexington 25-0, after putting up 22 points against Madison while holding the Lady Rams to zero, causing Patterson to add, “Being able to sub kids in and out freely, and not losing anything, has been what’s really important for us.”
After putting in the final two points against Madison, Abraham missed the varsity game against Lexington, but after a triple splash from the senior, Asche opened the final period scoring, it opened the door for the third key player of Patterson’s JV/varsity cast to log some quality minutes.
“I try to take advantage of all the little minutes that I get because I usually go in for just a couple minutes,” explained Straits on the afternoon of her 16th birthday. “I’ve been going in for Paige lately and it just feels good to go out there and feel like I’m important after all the practices we go through.”
And whether they feel it or not, the roles Oswalt, Straits and Abraham play during tournament time will be extremely important, keeping the Lady Knights at the top of their game through hard-fought practices and allowing Patterson to rest her key players for several minutes here-and-there during the tourney grind.
“Maria does a really nice job whenever she plays against them [in practice]. She pushes them to work harder,” explained Oswalt. “I do a little bit of both – play on the other team and on our team – so I can help them get better too during the game, even if we don’t get the minutes.”
And that kind of positive attitude from those kinds of players are what can define a great team like West Holmes, ranked No. 6 in the state at the Division II level after trading 14 points apiece with Lexington the rest of the way to ice the 60-39 victory, as Strother split from the line after getting fouled by Lexington’s Ashley Stevens toward the middle of the quarter, finishing with 11 points to go along with the game-high 13 put up by Laina Snyder.
Hogsette and Alissa Munro each put up 10 to lead Lexington, but when Hogsette picked up her fifth foul, with the final seconds ticking away and the score 58-34 in favor of the Lady Knights, Uhde stomped halfway down the sideline, sounding like Frankenstein trying to do tap dance, as the fact that Lady Lex is nothing more than a good practice squad for the 2010-11 West Holmes girls maybe started to sink in.
And that may sound bad, if they’re reading this in Lexington, but it’s also the simple truth.
Published: February 13, 2011
