Rough day for Lady Miners at Vincennes tourney

Linton-Stockton girls basketball coach Brian McKinney addresses his team during a timeout at the Neihaus Home Center Classic in Vincennes Tuesday. The Lady Miners dropped both of their opening-round games at the two-day event.(By Debbie Pruett/Greene County Daily World). [Order this photo]

Linton coach Brad McKinney knew entering the game that Robinson's height was going to be a challenge. The Lady Miners tried to play a regular man-to-man defense against Robinson's 6-foot-3 Kelsey Dirks, but McKinney said they didn't do a very good job defending her.

Dirks finished with 21 points and seven rebounds in leading the Lady Maroons to a 60-43 high school basketball victory at Vincennes University's PE Complex.

Linton's game-plan was "just to play a normal defense, but we didn't do a very good job at that. We didn't get around (Dirks) ... one tried to get around her, and then the backside help wasn't there. We were terrible defensively in this game," McKinney said.

"The 39 second-half points are just unacceptable. I know some of that happened when we lost Stephanie (Fougerousse, who picked up her fourth foul early in the third quarter) to foul trouble and they were able to go inside to (Dirks) when we didn't have our center in there. We were weak defensively in the second half. We just quit playing defense. We just quit playing defense. It didn't matter if we were in a zone, 1-3-1 trap or man-to-man, you still have to play defense. ... We can't allow our defense to be that bad."

The Lady Miners held Dirks to just 6 points in the first half, as both teams struggled taking care of the basketball, committing a combined 30 turnovers in the first half (Linton 14, Robinson 16).

Despite the slow start, the Lady Miners were able to take the momentum into the locker room with a 25-21 lead.

Linton came out strong in the second half, taking a 33-23 lead with 5 minutes and 32 seconds left in the quarter.

Fougerousse had a three-point play, Olivia Robison had a 3-pointer, and Kristen Riggleman had a field goal to build the margin.

But McKinney's concerns on defense came to light, as Robinson outscored Linton 20-2 the rest of the way to take a 43-35 lead into the final quarter.

Linton's powerful force in the middle, Fougerousse, got into foul trouble in the third quarter limiting her playing time. Robinson took advantage and fed the ball to Dirks, who scored 15 points in the second half, including nine in the third quarter.

With Fougerousse out, Riggleman had to step up and play inside for the Lady Miners and scored eight points and had four rebounds.

"She [Riggleman] did do some good things for us, and gave us some good minutes -- She had to," McKinney said.

With two players out due to injury or illness -- Bradlea Beard and Olivia Wells -- the Lady Miners had to rework their rotation. Bre Alsman stepped up and played well with seven points and 4-for-4 free throw shooting.

Robinson and Fougerousse led the Lady Miners with nine points each. Savannah Mason added six and Alex Daluga and Kelsey Overton each had two points.

Also in double digits for Robinson was Mychal Lowrance with 12 points.

Bad start sets the tone

The Lady Miners kicked off the Classic on Tuesday morning with a 66-51 setback to Turkey Run

Both teams came out strong, trading baskets early. At the end of the first quarter the Lady Warriors led 17-13.

However, Turkey Run's athleticism proved to be tough for the Lady Miners to contain, and were outscored 21-6 in the second quarter.

"We knew they were athletic, and in the first half we just didn't deal with that," McKinney said.

Turnovers and easy Turkey Run buckets put Linton down early. With a 14-0 run at the end of the second quarter, Turkey Run headed into halftime with a commanding 38-19 lead.

McKinney told his team it needed to play better defense in the second half. The team responded by holding the Lady Warriors to 11 points in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 14 with a quarter to play.

"We started executing better in the second half," McKinney said.

The Lady Miners were able to get the ball to its shooter, Robinson, in the second half. She was 4 of 8 from behind the arc and totaled 16 points for the game. This opened up the lane for center Fougerousse.

Fougerousse paced the Lady Miners with 17 points, going 5 of 6 from the free throw line.

After Linton switched to a man-to-man defense in the fourth quarter, Turkey Run took advantage of its athleticism once again by driving to the basket and drawing fouls.

Freshman Kylee Karr led the Lady Warriors with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

Turkey Run had four of its starters in double figures. Adrianne Francis totaled 15 points, Jordan Hunt tallied 14, and Shelby Davies had 11.

Missing two key players to injury and sickness, McKinney was proud of the way Bre Alsman and Kelsey Overton stepped up and played.

In the end, a lack of execution by the Lady Miners prevented them from staging a successful comeback.

"We've got to execute better when we're playing athletes like that," McKinney said.

The Lady Miners will continue play in the Niehaus Home Center Holiday Classic today against Shakamak at 5:30 p.m.

Niehaus Home Center Holiday Classic

at Vincennes University

Game One

Linton-Stockton (43)--Fougerousse 3-8 3-3 9, Robinson 3-10 0-0 9, Riggleman 4-6 0-1 8, Alsman 1-1 4-4 7, Mason 3-8 0-1 6, Overton 0-0 2-2 2

Totals 14-40 FG 11-13 FT 51 TP

Robinson (60)--Dirks 7-16 7-10 21, Lowrance 4-6 4-6 12, Williams 4-6 1-1 9, Watts 3-5 1-1 8, Connelly 2-6 1-1 5, Blake 1-2 1-2 3, Phillippe 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 22-44 FG 15-21 FT 60 TP

Linton 8 17 10 8 -- 43

Robinson 10 11 22 17 -- 60

3-Point goals--Linton 4-13 (Robinson 3-10, Alsman 1-1, Fougerousse 0-1, Mason 0-1), Robinson 1-5 (Watts 1-1, Connelly 0-4)

Total fouls--Linton 21, Robinson 15, Fouled out--none. Rebounds--Linton 15 (Fougerousse 4, Riggleman 4), Robinson 18 (Dirks 7, Williams 5), Turnovers--Linton 22, Robinson 20

Game two

TURKEY RUN (66)--Karr 8-11 1-1 18, A. Francis 7-9 1-3 15, Hunt 7-12 0-1 14, Davies 5-6 1-2 11, Newnum 3-5 0-0 7, L. Cox 0-2 1-2 1, C. Francis 0-2 0-0 0, Marshall 0-0 0-0 0, Totals 30-47 FG, 4-9 FT, 66 TP

LINTON-STOCKTON (51)--Fougerousse 6-10 5-6 17, Robinson 5-11 2-2 16, Mason 3-8 1-2 9, Daluga 0-11 3-6 3, Riggleman 1-2 0-0 2, Alsman 0-5 2-2 2, Overton 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 16-49 FG, 13-18 FT, 51 TP

Turkey Run 17 21 11 17--66

Linton 13 6 16 16--51

3-Point goals--Turkey Run 2-10 (Newnum 1-3, Karr 1-2, Hunt 0-5), Linton 6-13 (Robinson 4-8, Mason 2-4, Daluga 0-1)

Total Fouls--Turkey Run 16, Linton 11. Fouled out--none

Rebounds--Turkey Run 15 (A. Francis 5, Davies 4), Linton 19 (Fougerousse 6, Alsman 4).

Turnovers--Turkey Run 14, Linton 19