Jan. 23—Even though Tahlequah girls basketball outscored the Catoosa Lady Indians by 37 points in the first round of the Port City Invite, the star of the show wasn’t the offense — it was the defense.
THS allowed an average of five points a quarter in a 57-20 point win over the host Lady Indians on Thursday, Jan. 23. This marks the first time this season the Lady Tigers held a team to less than 30 points.
“This group has come a long way defensively,” THS head coach David Qualls said. “They are making it hard for other teams to score. We have the quickness to do that, we just have to lock in every possession. The defense was really good. Whenever you can hold a team to 20, that is great. Hopefully, we keep improving as the season goes on.”
Early in the game, neither team was making many baskets; through the first half of the quarter, the Lady Tigers barely led, 6-3. Junior Carsyn Gilbert broke out to give THS a spark with seven straight points to end the quarter. Overall Gilbert finished with 22 points.
“She was aggressive. She remains balanced outside and inside, getting to the basket and getting to the free-throw line,” Qualls said.
In the first quarter, the Lady Tigers didn’t allow a basket for over four minutes. That quickly became commonplace for THS. By the end of the game, the Lady Indians had four different stretches of at least four minutes without a point. The longest stretch went over seven minutes.
“Defensively we were really locked in, I thought,” Qualls said. “We had a lot of turnovers in the first half that led to offense. We were having a hard time scoring in our halftime offense early on, so it was important to turn defense into offense. That was really the key for us.”
After allowing 11 first-half points, THS gave up just nine in the second half as they cruised to a first-round win.
Gilbert and Lakyn Adams each finished with 22 points to lead the Lady Tigers.
THS is back in action at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24.
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