ERIC FORTUNE
LORDSTOWN – It was Lordstown coach Dave Smith’s 40th birthday. His players made sure it wasn’t spoiled by winning decisively in their NAC showdown with the Grand Valley Mustangs, 58-40.
Coming off a tough lose Monday to Southington, the Red Devils made sure there was no doubt tonight about the outcome.
“We wanted to come out strong,” Lindsey Harrison said. “We had been practicing all week on our 3s, really concentrating on our shooting and moving the ball around.”
After an early 5-0 advantage by the Mustangs (0-14), the Red Devils (10-6) showed the practice had paid off as Harrison and Kelsey Wickline rolled off 15 of the next 17 points to take an early 17-5 advantage after one.
The duo would continue with the hot hand with Wickline’s opening 3 to start the quarter and Harrison coming back with back-to-back 3s of her own to push it out to 26-8 early in the second quarter.
When everything was said and done after the first half commenced, Harrison and Wickline were responsible for 35 of the Red Devils 37 first half points as Lordstown led 37-13 at the half.
Harrison finished with 26 points and Wickline had 24 to compliment a night where Smith saw his squad have nice ball movement and just controlled the night really from the get go.
“They played well,” Smith said. “They actually started penetrating, cutting without the ball, and moving without the ball. They did very well with that. Our press worked pretty well at the beginning of the game. We got some good turnovers and turned them into fast breaks.”
While everything was running smoothly along for Lodstown, the Mustangs flat lined as coach Kim Trickett described it after jumping out to the quick 5-0 lead.
“We were very flat for the remainder of that first half,” Trickett said. “I told the kids at halftime, I said our intensity – there isn’t any. Pick up that intensity. The last two games we played have been very good. I said we need to get that intensity back if you want to compete.”
The speech did have its effect early on as the Mustangs started the third with a 10-3 run to get it within 16 before the Red Devils picked up the intensity to make it 48-29 after three.
“This is Game 14 and they came back out in the second half, picked up the intensity and did a lot of good things – came back and made it more of a game,” Trickett said.
The Mustangs outscored the Red Devils, 27-21, in the second half, but the hole they dug themselves in the first half was too much for them to overcome in the end.
“There isn’t anything different I can tell them,” Trickett said. “It all comes down to choice. We can either choose to come out and continue to play with that lack of intensity and flat line or you can choose to step up and play hard and get after things, the way we’ve been doing recently.
“The choice was theirs.”
Fortune is a correspondent for the (Warren) Tribune Chronicle.
