Lady Titans grab tournament win

YATES CENTER — A whopping advantage at the free throw line gave Southern Coffey County High’s girls enough of a working margin to win Monday.
Despite connecting on only six field goals, the Lady Titans shot a whopping 48 free throws against host Yates Center High.
The Wildcats still were able to remain within shouting distance, but could not convert enough offensive plays down the stretch to close the gap in a 30-22 loss.
The victory, in the opening round of Yates Center’s Wildcat Winter Classic, improves Southern Coffey County’s record to 2-0 on the season. The Wildcats fell to 0-1.
“When you score 22 points, and the other team almost has that many from the free throw line, that tells you a lot about the game,” Yates Center head coach Chris Wells said.
“The free throws definitely were key,” Lady Titan head coach Jeff True agreed. “It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win.”
The fouls were a byproduct of Yates Center’s aggressive, pressure defense that forced 19 Lady Titan turnovers.
Still, True was happy with how his team handled the press.
“We’ve had a lot better ball-handling teams have worse nights than we did tonight against a press like that,” he said. “I was happy with how we handled it.”
Niether offense found much of a flow throughout the contest.
The Lady Titans led 16-10  at the half despite hitting only two field goals in the first quarter and one more in the second. The lead stood at 24-18 after three periods.
The Wildcats had four players sitting with three fouls apiece by the end of the half. Yates Center was whistled for 18 fouls in the first two quarters. Three Wildcats, Paige Steinforth, Bailie Chambers and Shayna Karmann, fouled out while three others wound up with four fouls apiece.
A key point may have been a bit serendipitous, True admitted.
The Lady Titans deployed a box-and-one to focus its attention on Yates Center senior guard Emily Baker.
“I decided that at the last minute,” he said, after watching Baker’s hot shooting hand in a pregame 3-point shooting contest. Baker drained 11 of 20 attempts in a minute.
“If she can shoot like that, we needed to do something,” True said. “I think it threw her off a bit when we went to that defense.”
The strategy worked. Baker had few, if any, open looks throughout the night and scored only two points.
Sarah Webb was the focal point for Southern Coffey County’s offense, hitting 8 of 19 free throws for a game-high 10 points and 12 rebounds. Myranda Hegwald added eight rebounds. Breanna Isch had seven points, six rebounds and four steals.
Martyna Hegwald pulled in seven steals for the Lady Titans. Webb also had three steals.
Steinforth, Kendra Leach and Aubrey Smith scored six points apiece to pace Yates Center.
Southern Coffey County (8-8-8-6—30)
Yates Center (6-4-8-4—22)
SCC (FG-FT-F-TP): Newkirk 0-2-2-2, Ma. Hegwald 1-2-0-4, Webb 1-8-1-10, Brite 0-2-0-2, Alumbaugh 2-1-2-5, Isch 2-3-5-7. TOTALS: 6-18-10-30.
Yates Center (FG-FT-F-TP): Steinforth 3-0-5-6, Wendland 0-1-1-1, Karman 0-0-5-0, Baker 1-0-4-2, Holloway 0-0-4-0, Galemore 0-1-1-1, Leach 3-0-3-6, Smith 2-0-4-4, Chambers 1-0-5-2. TOTALS: 10-2-32-22.