Lady Goblins turn to defense

First-year Harrison coach Kristian Williams has warned her girls a number of times that there would come a game when the Lady Goblins wouldn’t shoot the ball that well.

It took place Tuesday night as Harrison struggled with its shooting against Shiloh Christian, and the Lady Goblins used their defense to pull out a 44-43 victory to remain unbeaten.

“We definitely won the game with defense,” Williams said. “We might have shot 20 percent. We would miss a shot, grab the rebound, then maybe miss again.

“I told our girls after the game that if they wanted to pad their rebound stats, they had to do it without giving me more gray hairs. But we found a way to win the game.”

What Williams likes about the Lady Goblins is she has a very balanced attack. Harrison’s top six or seven players are capable of being the leading scorer in any particular game.

Four players finished in double figures Tuesday as Claire Barger had 12, followed by Maggie Salmon with 11 while Brynn Oleson and Alex Hill added 10 apiece. Meanwhile, Sydney Shrum and Mariah Hudson, both of whom have contributed with scoring in other games, went scoreless.

“If you had told me in September we would have a game where neither Sydney nor Mariah scored a point, I would have said we were in trouble,” Williams said. “But everybody has a different job on different nights, and the girls are buying into it and doing what it takes to win games.

“Coaching a team like this is a dream. We are very balanced, and that makes it a fun team to coach. They all share the same goal in mind, and every game we could have a different leader.”