The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Falcons overcome slow start to knock off Dukes
Schmitz leads Firelands with 10 points in LC8 victory
Just over halfway through the second quarter of its game against Wellington on Jan. 20, Firelands scored its 12th point of the game. It was a putback from Lauren Valerius.
The Falcons wouldn’t score for the remaining three minutes of the first half.
A team that averages over 65 points a game, held to just 12 in one half, normally a recipe for disaster.
Not for Firelands. The Falcons slowly regained confidence throughout the third quarter before taking a 19-18 lead they didn’t lose for the rest of the night, defeating Wellington 3324.
“We struggled a little bit with finding a rhythm,” Firelands head coach Dave Kudela said. “Hopefully we can bounce back a little bit and play with some fluidity. It was really one of those games where we couldn’t get going really on either end.”
It had been over a week and a half since the Falcons had played a game due to COVID-19. Not because Firelands had positive tests, but because their opponents had.
Two weeks with no practices against live opponents wore on Firelands as they came out looking like a team that hadn’t played in two weeks against the Dukes.
A 2-3 zone was the main source of the Falcons’ troubles as they grew stagnant on offense.
“We stepped up knowing we didn’t want them to score anymore and we worked hard at it.” — Firelands’ Abbey Schmitz
“I feel like we were being really selfish with each other and not passing,” Abbey Schmitz said. “Our biggest thing is passing. We needed to get the ball out to each other when we were open.”
When Wellington took an 8-7 lead, on back-toback makes from Ally Zvara, they locked down even tighter on the Falcons defensively. Wellington allowed just five second quarter points and carried a four point lead into the half after a 3-pointer from Amanda Spiekerman in the final minutes.
“The girls did a good job of executing our game plan which was to ugly it up a little bit,” Wellington head coach Nathan Morris said. “We wanted to slow them down and be aware of where Schmitz was at all times. And I though they did a good job really all the way through the fourth quarter. What it came down to was putting the ball in the hoop.”
Spiekerman scored a team high five points alongside Karlie Frenk who also added five.
Firelands recovered in the third quarter. After a four minute streak without a make, Megan and Madison Sutton keyed a 9-0 run over the final two minutes of the period.
Wellington scored just two points in the third, the first basket as Firelands flipped the script and tightened on defense.
“We pressed them and I don’t think they could handle the pressure we were giving them,” Schmitz said. “We stepped up knowing we didn’t want them to score anymore and we worked hard at it.”
Schmitz scored six of her team-high ten points in the fourth quarter to ice it, after a slow start to the game. Madison Sutton also scored ten for Firelands.
Wellington will make the trip to Firelands High School on Jan. 23 for a rematch. Morris hopes to see the same effort from his team, with a few more makes at key moments.
“I feel like we were maybe just a few baskets short in the second half of maybe stopping runs and things like that,” he said.