Jan. 30, 2013 — The West Carter Lady Comets made their first trip to the All “A” State Tournament since 2011 this past Wednesday. However, the trip was very short after Frankfort used a big second quarter to defeat West Carter 45-19 at the Frankfort Convention Center.
The Lady Comets could not establish any type of rhythm offensively, going 6-35 from the field, good for 17.1 percent and turning the ball over 32 times.
“You’re not going to beat anybody if you turn the ball over 32 times in a game,” Stevens said. “That was the difference. We struggled when we did get the ball down in a scoring position. We struggled to handle it and get into any kind of set.”
West held a 6-2 advantage early over the Lady Panthers, but from there the turnovers mounted as Frankfort would go on a 25-4 run over the next 11:25 to take a 27-10 lead going into the half.
“I thought we were in pretty good shape early,” Stevens said. “We were where we wanted to be with the pace being ours. But they extended their pressure and we cracked under it.”
Senior Brooke Callihan admitted the nerves got to West playing at a state tournament.
“I think so,” Callihan said. “That first two minutes everybody came out nervous and a little later everyone calmed down. But when the pressure came, our nerves went back up.”
It did not get much better in the second half for the Lady Comets. The team’s last field goal was a Callihan basket at 6:39 remaining in the third quarter. She finished with four points.
“We just couldn’t get into any type of offense,” Stevens said. “Part of it was to their credit and part of it was to our demise. We just don’t look to handle the ball sometimes and you have to do that and step up and meet the pressure head on. We headed backwards all day.”
Lexie Berry had a team-high six points for the Lady Comets. Megan Centers scored three points while Bonita Easterling, Morgan Berry and Chelsea Zeigler had two points each. Lexie Berry said once Frankfort took the big lead, she knew her team was in trouble.
“Whenever teams get up on us, we don’t handle it all,” Lexie Berry said.
Despite the loss, West Carter outrebounded Frankfort 46-36, including 14 offensive rebounds. Stevens also credited that stat with good defensive pressure early in the contest.
“I thought we played fairly good defense,” Stevens said. “In the first quarter, we had everything pretty much where we wanted it. But when they turned the pressure up, we pretty much stopped everything that we were doing.”
But he also knows offense wins games.
“We’re not a big time scoring team,” Stevens said. “We’ve relied on our defense and most of their points were not anything special. It was to their advantage because they were quicker. We had to keep the game in our neighborhood and we didn’t do that.”
MacKenzie Bates can be reached at mbates@journal-times.com or by telephone at 1-800-247-6142.
