Lady Mikes control ball, tempo, Mapletown
Holly Tonini
Carmichaels’ Kristina Aeschbacher (22) controls the ball as Mapletown’s Madison Bogden applies pressure during Tuesday’s game at Mapletown High School.
Mapletown’s Abby Shipley (21) tries to keep control of the ball as Carmichaels’ Molly Roberts takes it for the steal during their game Tuesday at Mapletown High School. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
Mapletown's Madison Bogden (1) uses her height to take a shot over Carmichaels' Molly Roberts (12) Tuesday at Mapletown High School.
Carmichaels’ Caroline Cree (10) dribbles the ball around Mapletown’s Brook Duranko (3) during a game at Mapletown earlier this season. Cree scored her 1,000th career point for the Lady Mikes on Jan. 22 against Bentworth. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
GREENSBORO – Playing in their fourth game over the last five days, the Carmichaels girls’ basketball team battled fatigue and was able to prevail 45-27 over Mapletown in non-section action Tuesday night.
“I really wasn’t worried about the physical fatigue,” Carmichaels coach Jim Lane said. “When you play four games in five days, it’s always about the mental side of things. We wanted to focus on the little things like rebounding and playing defense. We controlled the ball and the tempo.”
With the win, the Lady Mikes (2-2) evened their record after splitting games over the weekend at the Charleroi Tip-off Tournament and dropping a contest to Jefferson-Morgan Monday night.
Carmichaels had six players reach the score sheet, headlined by 20 points from Caroline Cree. The senior guard tallied three 3-pointers in the victory, while going six-for-11 at the foul line.
Moriah Hathaway was the other player in double-figures for the Lady Mikes with 11 points.
The Lady Maples (0-3) were led by 11 points from Madison Bogden.
“These girls always have heart,” Mapletown coach Erik Smith said. “You can’t take that away from them, but these first three games, turnovers have killed us. We have to get better ball-handling from our guards and run our offense.”
Bogden started the scoring in the contest with a trey for Mapletown, but Cree was able to answer back with a shot from beyond the arc to tie the game.
After Carmichaels scored eight straight points, the squads exchanged a pair of baskets late in the first quarter and the Lady Mikes held a 15-7 edge after one.
In the second stanza, Emily Wagner connected on a pair of free throws to bring the deficit down to 18-10 for the Lady Maples, but the visitors rallied with an 11-3 run to take a 29-13 lead.
Hathaway recorded eight points in the second period, including the final bucket of the second to make it 31-16 at halftime.
“Caroline was obviously the key for us tonight,” Lane said. “But I thought our rebounding was effective. You have to control the boards and give yourself second opportunities. When Caroline is open, she is open to shoot. Of course, we want to be balanced on offense and everyone has their roles. Moriah played a solid game for us tonight as well.”
After Bogden scored the first basket of the third period, Carmichaels went on a 10-1 spurt the rest of the quarter to build a 41-19 advantage heading into the final eight minutes of play.
Mapletown outscored Carmichaels 8-4 in the final eight minutes, but it was not enough as the Lady Mikes held on and picked up the non-section win.
The Lady Mikes will have the rest of the week off and will be preparing for their Section 4-AA opener against Washington at home next Monday.
“We are going to stress fundamentals in practice,” Lane said. “I like how our schedule is and I like how we get a break before we open the section. We are going to review what we did the last four games and try to improve as a team. We are always looking to improve.”
Mapletown will be off before starting Section 3-A play on Friday at Avella.
“I did like how we played defense tonight,” Smith said. “We knew their main player was going to get her points and we just tried to slow her down. We didn’t let any of the other players beat us. She was able to make a lot of her shots tonight and if we stopped her, then who knows.”