The Lady Dons hosted 9 and 1 Casa Grande Wednesday night in a match-up of two NCS D2 squads. Coming in Maxpreps had Casa rated #2 in D2 which made this an important match-up for future playoff seeding. The Dons didn’t have their best shooting night, but relied on intense full court pressure to end the first quarter with a 13 to 9 lead. In the 2nd quarter the girls picked up the defensive pressure another notch and were able to push the halftime lead to 13 points. The 2nd half was sloppy on both sides, however, the Lady Dons extended their lead further and finished with a respectable 18 point victory. Given the poor shooting night and an abundance of uncharacteristic turnovers, Coach Gartner was happy with the end result. This game was all about defense with guards Sophie Chinn, Natalie Lyons, Isabella Aris-Dumas, Natalie Frechman, Kelly Todhunter and Karyss Lacanlale applying intense full court pressure all game which resulted in 20+ turnovers for the visiting Gauchos and only 25 total points.
The freshmen trio of Karyss Lacanlale (14 points), Sophie Chinn (9 points and endless steals) and Dulci Vail (8 points) again led the way in scoring. The girls are in action next on Tuesday at Granada High School in the largest girls tournament of the year in California, the West Coast Jamboree.
The below pic is the girls after practice Tuesday delivering cards to the Merrill Gardens Assisted Living Facility.
