For the second straight game, Wellington got defensive in the second half and secured a rare win over a rival.
The host Dukes held Keystone to just five second-half points while finally getting inside the Wildcats’ 2-3 zone on offense en route to a 31-15 Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division win Jan. 6.
“It’s a really nice win for us,” Wellington coach Nathan Morris said. “For 12 years, Keystone has pretty much owned our conference so anytime we can get a win against that team is a good win for us.
“(Defensively) we just kind of mix-and-match a little bit with some pressure and try to play solid half-court defense against them. We finally took away some of their offensive rebounding that they had in the first half, which gave them some easy points. It kind of went from there.”
Wellington’s Hope Diermyer hit back-to-back 3s to start the game for Wellington. It was the only points the Dukes (6-2, 5-0) scored in the first quarter until Alexis Lehmkuhl scored on a rebound and putback to give them an 8-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Diermyer (12 points) hit two more 3s in the second quarter to provide the Dukes some much needed offense as Keystone (3-5, 3-2) stayed within arm’s length, trailing 16-10.
“After I hit the first one I was like,’Okay, I have to keep shooting,’ ” Diermyer said. “Even if I miss, it’s going to be fine … it just felt really nice to help the team out.
“It’s awesome (to beat Keystone). I think in the last 12 years, we’ve only beaten them three times.”
In the second half, Wellington displayed its defensive prowess.
The Dukes held Keystone to just two points in the third quarter and kept them scoreless for a stretch of more than 12 minutes to the end of the third and into the fourth quarter. Grace Baracskai scored Keystone’s only points in the fourth quarter with a 3 with 43 seconds remaining.
While the defense was suffocating, Wellington’s height and length — which was a factor on defense — came to the forefront offensively.
Lehmkuhl (6-foot) scored six of her 10 points in the second half, while Erin Frenk (6-0) scored all four of her points in the second half. All but two of those points were putbacks after offensive rebounds.
“I think Hope hitting those shots early on made them chase us a little bit around on the perimeter. It opened up the inside for us,” Morris said. “I think that is the reason why we were able to control the boards in the second half.”
While Wellington’s defense was a big factor, the Wildcats lack of opportunities contributed to the low output in the second half.
“When you shoot 13 percent from the floor — per our statistician — and the thing is we only got 29 shot attempts,” Keystone voach Scott Terry said. “Which is about half of what you’d like to get in a basketball game and shoot 13 percent on top of that, you can’t get enough stops in a game to be able to be in the game.
“In the first half, I thought we did a good job of keeping them off the boards. In the second half, that didn’t happen … they just killed us underneath.”
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