The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 12, 2012 Page: 8 of 12
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THE ALLEN AMERICAN | THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012
AllenAmerican. com
LOVEJOY GIRLS BASKETBALL
Lady Leopards run past Prosper in fourth
_MATT WELCH_
mwelch@acnpapers.com
PROSPER — The Lovejoy girls
basketball team didn’t exactly cir-
cle the date of Friday’s District 11-
3A opener on the calendar as a
reminder.
Instead, the team simply en-
graved the date “1/6” on the back of
their t-shirts as a reminder of what
a rigorous non-district schedule
would be building towards.
And with seven minutes to go in
Friday’s opener at Prosper, the
Lady Leopards put that effort on
display for a 55-33 victory.
t£We knew what our non-district
schedule was like and how tough it
would be,” said Nick Gauer, Love-
joy head coach, “so this has been a
goal for us since I took over the pro-
gram and it was just an awesome
win tonight.”
Onlookers would be hard-
pressed to believe that one minute
into Friday’s fourth quarter, the
Lady Leopards possessed a mere
33-28 lead after a bank shot by
Prosper’s Reagan Jones. The
PHOTO COURTESY OF CRAIG ENGLE
Lovejoy freshman Samantha Odom,
pictured, sparked a fourth-quarter
charge with a game-high 12 points in
the team’s 55-33 win over Prosper.
bucket, converted off a Jones steal,
was the last time the Lady Eagles
found the bottom of the net until
there was one minute left in the
contest. Within that six-minute
span, Lovejoy ripped off 17 unan-
swered points.
We’ve been talking all year
about playing four quarters,”
Gauer said. “One night, we’d play
lights out and then we’d turn
around and lay an egg. We kept
battling and tonight, our best quar-
ter was the fourth.”
The Lady Leopards didn’t ven-
ture outside the paint often, dicing
through Prosper’s zone for layups,
forcing turnovers at the other end
of the floor, rinsing and repeating.
Lovejoy forced eight turnovers
in the final frame, the bulk of which
came by jumping passing lanes.
Those takeaways were con-
verted into points.
Freshman Samantha Odom led
the way with nine of her team-high
12 points scored over the final two
quarters. Odom cleaned up on the
glass too, converting an and-1 on an
offensive rebound to extend Love-
joy’s lead to 42-28 with 2:45 left.
“The last couple games, [Odom]
had struggled here and there,”
Gauer said. “Samantha goes from
a post to a guard a lot and prefers
the post, but she can handle the
ball real well and is just a train
when she’s driving down the lane.
“When she puts her mind to it,
she can go stinkin’ score, that’s for
sure.”
Holding Prosper without a de-
fensive rebound during the fourth
quarter, the Lady Leopards’ attack-
minded offense either equated a
layup or a trip to the charity stripe,
where they converted ll-of-14 free
throws in the fourth quarter. Fresh-
man Paige Eberhart knocked down
a quartet of looks from the line to
up her total to six points and open
up a 48-28 lead with one minute to
play
The Lady Eagles had no answer,
mustering just seven points in the
final stanza, five behind the trigger
of Jones, who led all scorers with 14
points.
Lovejoy’s late surge was all the
more timely in that it countered a
7-1 Prosper spurt that covered the
waning moments of the third quar-
ter, where Jones sunk a bank shot
at the buzzer to trim the Lady
Leopards’ lead to 32-26.
“They got a bit of momentum
there, but I told the kids to just take
it easy and that it wasn’t a big
deal,” Gauer said. “They turned
around and played a great fourth
quarter.”
The Lady Leopards reverted to
the formula that helped them build
a lead from the onset, pressuring
the Lady Eagles into a bevy of mis-
cues early and jumping out to an
11-1 lead.
Three-pointers from sophomore
Cassie Conarty, who totaled 10
points on the evening, and junior
Katy Beth Holstead, who tallied
five points, sparked Lovejoy early
before offensive rebounds pulled
Prosper back to within 11-8 by
quarter’s end.
‘We’d go back to some of our old
freshman, sophomore ways,” Gauer
said. “Things like not blocking out
or playing good defense.”
The second frame manifested it-
self in much the same way, with
Lovejoy maintaining a 16-14 lead
late in the quarter before a put-
back by senior Stefanie Lewerenz
helmed a 6-2 run to close out the
frame for a 22-16 halftime lead.
The Lady Leopards never
looked back and now have a 1-0 dis-
trict start to show for their efforts
with a 7:30 p.m. home tilt against
Farmersville set for Tuesday
LOVEJOY BOYS BASKETBALL
Latest non-district rout braces Lovejoy or 11-3A slate
MATT WELCH
mwelch@acnpapers.com
Monday night’s non-dis-
trict finale was a microcosm
of sorts for the Lovejoy boys
basketball team’s 2011-12
campaign thus far.
With 13 of the Leopards’
17 wins coming by way of
double figures, it seems
only fitting that win No. 18
would be amassed in simi-
lar fashion. That was the
case in a home game
against Kaufman as Love-
joy opened up a double-digit
lead after one quarter and
didn’t look back in a 71-42
win to cap non-district play
“I thought we actually
started a bit slow compared
to what we’re accustomed
to,” said Kyle Herrema,
Lovejoy head coach. “We
turned things on in the sec-
ond half though and got a
lot of contributions from
lots of players.”
For whatever lull the
Leopards’ offense may have
been in at the start, Kauf-
man failed to capitalize,
scoring just five points in
the first quarter en route to
a 35-23 deficit at halftime.
The Leopards widened that
margin with each ensuing
quarter and outscored
Kaufman, 36-19, the rest of
the way
In victory, Lovejoy flexed
its depth with nine players
scoring. Junior Trevor
Eckard led the pack with 20
points, followed by 13 from
junior Hayden Freeman,
nine from junior Jake Flag-
gert and eight from senior
Joseph Gonzalez.
“Eckard played real well
and I think that just speaks
to the kind of team this is,”
Herrema said. “We don’t
have to rely on one person
for buckets and Trevor was
all over the place inside and
has been shooting really
well from the perimeter.
“It’s another dimension
to the offense and the more
diverse we are, the tougher
it is to guard.”
A ceremonious cap to
non-district competition,
the Leopards were a mere
48 hours removed from
their toughest task of the
season. Testing the deepest
waters in Class 5A, Lovejoy
dropped a 73-37 decision to
DeSoto, ranked No. 9 in the
nation by MaxPreps. The
Leopards were game early,
trailing 13-10 after one
quarter, until DeSoto ratch-
eted its play up a notch,
most notably outscoring
Lovejoy, 26-3, in the fourth
frame.
Gonzalez led the way
with 17 points, while senior
Britt Graham posted seven
points.
“We wanted to challenge
ourselves and I think
there’s nothing but posi-
tives that come from a
game like that,” Herrema
said. “I think anytime
somebody puts that kind of
pressure defensively, any-
thing less than that can
slow a team down. The
more opportunities you
have to expose yourself to
situations like that, the bet-
ter it is in the long run.”
Those preparations will
be put to the test Friday in
Lovejoy’s District 11-3 A
opener, a road tilt against
Frisco Lone Star. Enduring
a bevy of 4A and 5A compe-
tition over the past few
months, the Leopards
rounded out their non-dis-
trict slate at 18-5.
“Part of that is not just
for district play,” Herrema
said, “it is that we want to
start transitioning to a 4A
schedule. You don’t get bet-
ter playing lesser competi-
tion, so we just wanted to
challenge ourselves to get
better.”
By that same accord, the
Rangers capped their non-
district schedule at 10-5, in-
cluding wins in five or their
last six contests.
With Lone Star boasting
a youthful squad and its
first senior class, Herrema
noted the Rangers’ athleti-
cism on the perimeter,
which translates into an at-
tack-heavy mindset spear-
headed by Charles Brakes,
Christian Jones and Zach
Brown.
“[Lone Star] gave us
quite a scare at home in the
district opener last year
and I think they’re going to
come ready to play,” Her-
rema said. “They’re trying
to knock us off the block a
little bit, so to speak.”
The Leopards and
Rangers commence the 11-
3A schedule with a 7:30
p.m. tipoff.
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
sprained his ankle just days
before the Plano West game
so he was a bit off for that
one.
“This was more of the
Drew we all know tonight,
though.”
While the Hawks fired
away, Allen seemed content
to try and match the Eagles
shot for shot. The results
played more in Hebron’s
favor, with Allen only con-
verting two 3-pointers in the
first half.
“I think there’s a tendency
to always want to do that
and answer their threes with
threes,” said Steve Specht,
Allen head coach. “They
make a good play and you
want to answer, and some-
times that means you forget
about defense and we’ve ad-
dressed that over and over.”
The second-quarter surge
was all the Hawks needed,
with Nick McGruder scoring
Hebron’s first six points in
the third quarter to pace a
48-32 advantage after three
frames.
While the Hawks’ quar-
terly output wouldn’t match
the 21-point outburst in the
second frame, Hebron’s de-
fense kept Allen from ever
pulling within single digits;
thanks in part to forcing
seven of its nine turnovers in
the second half.
“I thought our game plan
was good,” Bishop said. ‘We
jumped the passing lanes,
held their posts in check a bit
and it was just a good overall
game for us.”
Committing just two
turnovers in the first half,
Allen threatened early in a
bench-led 5-0 run to close out
the first quarter. Buckets by
junior C.T. Anyiam and soph-
omore Myron Fisher drew
Allen to within 15-12 after
one quarter. With its scoring
split 50-50 between the
starters and reserves on the
night, the latter helped
nearly weather a 12-4 start
by the Hawks. Shipley
sparked the early charge,
dropping eight of his 18
points in the first frame to
complement six assists in the
win.
‘You’ve got to hand it to
[Hebron],” Specht said.
“Mark has always got his
kids ready and well-pre-
pared. They run everything
s
PHOTO COURTESY OF NEILFONVILLE.COM
Allen senior Jacob Rothbauer,
right, led the Eagles with 11
points in Monday’s 62-48 loss
to Hebron.
and are very well-disciplined
and won’t take bad shots.
They don’t turn the ball over
and when you do that in this
district, they’ll make you
pay.”
The loss marked Allen’s
third consecutive district de-
feat. The Eagles look to right
the ship Friday when they
host Flower Mound at 7:30
p.m.
The Hawks travel to meet
Flower Mound Marcus at the
same time.
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Mann, Rick. The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 12, 2012, newspaper, January 12, 2012; Plano, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth808857/m1/8/: accessed May 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Allen Public Library.