ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — If a basketball team is going to hoist up a truckload of shots, it better be not only willing to fight for the rebounds, but be successful in the endeavor as well.

Edgewood, though it missed more than 50 shots, was able to rebound well enough to pull out a 31-19 victory over SS. John and Paul on Monday at Edgewood.

The Warriors (2-12) won their second straight.

Edgewood made just 19 percent (12 of 63) of its shots, was able to extend enough possessions with rebounds to overcome its poor shooting performance.

“(Offensive rebounding) was very important,” Edgewood coach Dave McCoy said. “We came out for the game very flat. We missed shots because they started out in a zone. It got a little frustrating. Rebounding was important for us tonight.

“I think it was big. The more we have the ball, it’s to our advantage.”

The Warriors did exactly what the Heralds (1-11) wanted them to in shooting from the perimeter, however, the second part of the plan fell through.

“The gameplan was to start out in a 2-3 zone and force them to make shots from the outside,” SJP coach Nick Iarocci said. “I respect (Edgewood post) Ashley Thomas.

“We wanted the 2-3 to be active and not passive. We got stuck in that zone. We need to make sure we stay active and in the game.”

Despite the problem rebounding, the Heralds played defense well enough to prevail.

“I’m not upset at all with the defense,” Iarocci said. “We played defense well enough to win. We only gave up 31 points and 10 or 12 of those were off our turnovers. The biggest problem we had was with handling their pressure.”

And it was a big problem.

Edgewood forced 41 SJP turnovers in making 23 steals.

“That’s something we’ve battled all year,” Iarocci said. “We have to execute. We have to make better decisions. We work on that every day in practice.”

Seven players made steals for Edgewood and five of them had three or more. Thomas led the way with six, Keegan McTrusty, Alyssa Johnson and Kayla Claypool each had four and Gia Saturday had three.

SJP had real trouble finding openings from which to shoot. The times the Heralds were able to get off a shot, it was contested.

“Not playing our best, we were still able to play great defense,” McCoy said. “That was all set up by our ability to play man defense.

“We’ve been preaching (that you can struggle on offense and still play good defense) all year. “You can see improvement. There are times we played a great quarter, a great half or even a great three quarters, now we’re starting to put together some consistency. I tell the it’s a game of runs. Now, we’re able to control that and limit those runs.”

The Warriors held the Heralds to six points or less in each quarter.

“That’s outstanding,” McCoy said. “One of the philosophies I like to preach is defense. Our goal is to hold teams to 10 points in every quarter. That’s 40 points and will allow us to win games.”

The Heralds actually led, 5-4, at the end of the first quarter and trailed only 11-9 at the half. Edgewood opened that lead a bit with about a minute to play in the third period.

With Edgewood leading by two, 15-13, SJP’s Brenna Powers was on her way to a break-away layup. An Edgewood defender caught up to her just as she was about to shoot and committed a foul in an attempt to block a shot. Powers, frustrated over not being able to get the shot off, slammed the ball down. She was called for a technical.

Saturday made both free throws and Thomas added another one on the ensuing possession to give the Warriors an 18-13 advantage heading into the final eight minutes.

“The technical foul was a key point in the game,” Iarocci said. “We just scored four straight points. Brenna spiked the ball. It was the right call. They got free throws and, give Edgewood credit, they capitalized.

“That definitely took the life out of us. But those things are part of basketball.”

The Warriors opened the fourth quarter with seven straight points to go up, 25-13.

Thomas led the Warriors with 11 points and 16 boards. Johnson scored six points and had eight rebounds and Claypool scored six points with six rebounds.

Krissy Gallo paced the Heralds with 11 points, nine boards, three steals and a pair of blocks.

Ettinger is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.