Last-minute Assault Not Enough To Save Lady Comets

JOHN GORDON
Tuesday, January 25, 2000     Page: 18

Last-minute assault not enough to save Lady CometsBy JOHN GORDON
jtgordon@leader.net The Crestwood Comets held the Meyers Mohawks to only two
points on a pair of free throws in the fourth quarter of its junior-varsity
girls basketball contest at the Crestwood gym on Wednesday night but still
came up short in the final tally. The Mohawks went only 6-21 at the charity
stripe and trailed 23-19 at halftime. They were seemingly overmatched and
definitely understaffed, suiting up only six players for the contest. But that
didn’t matter. Heather Antolik and Caelie McCormick outscored the entire
Comet offense in the second half, and they accomplished the feat in the third
quarter alone. The two girls combined for 13 points in the third frame as
Meyers outscored its opponent 17-4. Crestwood managed only 10 points in the
entire second half, ultimately falling to the Lady Mohawks 38-33. The game
began with sloppy play by both teams. The two squads continually turned the
ball over on errant passes, traveling calls and fundamental mistakes. The
mistakes finally gave way in the latter half of the first quarter as both
teams’ offenses started to find a rhythm and the basket. Missy Stout turned in
a strong performance early as she drained three shots to stake the Comets to a
10-8 lead after one quarter. She finished the game with six points. Crestwood
continued with an offensive assault in the second quarter led by Kristen
Boone’s four points that catapulted the Lady Comets to the 23-19 halftime
lead. Boone had eight points in the half and finished the game with a
team-high 12 points going four for five from the free-throw line. Then came
the decisive third quarter and a ferocious full-court press by Meyers, which
produced turnover after turnover and many successful transition points. “We
had the zone press working really well tonight,” Meyers head coach Bob Hassel
said. The score went from a 25-23 Comet lead to a 31-25 Mohawk advantage in a
span of two minutes due to the relentless defensive traps. “Real aggressive
defense was displayed by our team,” Hassel said. The 8-0 run by Meyers
finally came to an end when Crestwood’s Charbi Ann Webby hit two of her four
points in the quarter with a strong move to the hoop with 3:30 left in the
third. Webby finished with six points. The Mohawks got seven points from
Antolik and six from McCormick as Meyers dominated the quarter and built its
biggest lead heading into the final frame, 36-27. Antolik had seven points in
the definitive quarter and finished as the game’s top scorer with 17 points.
McCormick’s six points in the third were the most impressive ones of her
nine-point performance. She muscled inside repeatedly, and her hustle paid off
as she got several offensive boards and put a few of them back for key scores.
“The girls moved the ball around the perimeter and inside extremely well,”
Hassel said. The only drama left in the waning moments of the game was
whether or not the Comets would shut out the Mohawks in the final stanza. Part
of the punchless offense by the Mohawks was because they went into a
semi-stall trying to run some time off the clock. Meyers was unable to produce
a field goal late. Heather Antolik managed to draw a foul with 10 seconds
left. She nailed both free throws in helping her team avoid putting a zero
under its fourth-quarter tally. Meyers (38) H. Antolik 7 3-5 17, McCormick 3
3-8 9, Sawicki 4 0-4 8, Hassel 1 0-2 2, Grilli 0 0-2 0, Waechter 1 0-0 2,
Totals 16 6-21 38 Crestwood (33) Boone 4 4-5 12, Stout 3 0-0 6, Webby 3 0-0
6, Morgan 2 0-0 4, Babish 1 0-0 2, Joyce 1 0-0 2, Conway 0 0-0 0, Gehringer 0
0-0 0, Totals 14 4-5 33 3-point FG’s: none