ASHLAND − It’s often understood that a good defensive effort can work wonders for a basketball team.
Case in point, the Ashland High School girls basketball team.
Ashland, behind a solid man-to-man defensive effort, throttled New Philadelphia 60-43 at Arrow Arena Thursday night in Ohio Cardinal Conference action.
The win lifts Ashland to 6-5 in the OCC, and 8-9 overall. New Philly is now 1-7 in the OCC, 3-14, respectively.
Trailing 10-9 after the first quarter, Ashland pocketed five steals as a team in the second quarter, as the Lady A’s out-scored the Lady Quakers 21-4 to take a 30-14 lead at the half.
New Philly fought back in the third quarter to pull to within 43-33 but the Ashland defense stepped it up again in the early part of the fourth quarter as the Lady A’s ended up pouring in 17 points in the final stanza, and holding the Lady Quakers to 10 points.
More: New London girls thriving off affectionate pass-first mentality
Ashland sophomore forward Camryn Cox, who led all players with 21 points and 11 rebounds, was one of the mainstays as well at the defensive end, as was classmate Madison Hoffman, who poured in 10 points and picked up a game-high four steals.
“I think we came out in the first half with really tough defense and out pressure on them that they didn’t know was coming, and just played good defense, continuing into our offensive game and started hitting layups,” Cox noted. “And we’ve been running a four-out, one-in and that’s opened it up for our guards who drive to the hoop well.And it’s really been working for the posts and guards to be able to hit the kick out too.”
That boded well for Ashland freshman forward Kennedy Lacey, who scored 13 points with five rebounds. But other players, like freshman point guard Cienna Steury (7 points, 2 steals), freshman Grace Tobias (4 points, steal), junior Lauren Green (1 point, 4 rebounds, steal), senior Alex Huckleberry (3 points, steal), and Laney McNamara (1 point), also did their part off the bench playing solid defense and allowing the starters to catch their breath,
Hoffman says the team has been working hard on defense in practice all week.
“It’s just been like a mindset, it’s just like you have to go out there and play hard on defense, that will win you games for sure, that’s just the biggest part of basketball,” Hoffman offered. “We were up by 16 going into the half, and in the third quarter we started to get a little rough but we picked it up in the fourth quarter and we turned the game around.
“We’ve picked it up in practice, the coaches have been pushing us super hard recently and honestly, driving to the hoop , we call it ‘yellow,’ always drive to the hoop and look for those kick outs,” she added. “We got open shots and played together.”
Ashland coach Renee Holt watched as her team out-rebounded New Philly, 33-29, forcing 16 turnovers and committing just nine of their own.
“This week we talked about consistency in our defense because we can bring out defense every night and tonight, I thought we took that next step defensively,” Holt said. “And they keep talking about Camryn and Kennedy being that Batman and Robin, and it’s fun to see but sometimes they’re overlooking our guards. Our guards are knocking down shots. Kennedy is earning every point she gets.
“We’re working on jumping in those passing lanes, speeding it up, learning how to score off those steals and just pushing the pace.I think we’re really growing and we’re starting to look like upperclassmen out there.”
Ellie Mason led New Philly with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Sarah Ciereszewski added 10 points.
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland defeat New Philadelphia behind play of Cox, Hoffman
