Sports - November 2003

Lady Knights fall to Jaguars

Published November 26, 2003

By JOHN MARK BROOKS, Staff Writer

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Going into the game against Forestview, North Lincoln women’s coach Mark Lackey believed if they accomplished one goal they could win the game. They did not accomplish that goal or the game, as they fell to the Lady Jaguars 38-33.

“Our goal going into the game is we wanted to limit them to one shot as much as we could, but we didn’t do a good job of that. They put pressure up top all night long and we didn’t handle that well either,” Lackey said.

The Lady Knights were competitive throughout the ball game with the score 13-12 at halftime. However, an 18-point quarter by the Lady Jaguars gave them a 31-21 advantage going into the final quarter.

Lackey said the Lady Jaguars’ defensive pressure made things difficult for the Lady Knights’ offense.

“Every time we got the ball up top they forced us to play our offense out so far away from the basket,” said Lackey. “That disrupted what we wanted to do offensively.

“Now, when we got it inside we got good looks at the basket and made some shots.”

North Lincoln rallied to score 12 points in the final quarter, but it was not enough.

Sara McCall led the Knights with 13 points while teammate Lindsey Smith scored 10.

“Sara had a good night scoring. Lindsey had the best night shooting from the outside. She was able to knock down two three-pointers and both of them helped us get back in the ball game there in the fourth quarter,” Lackey said.

Jessie Devine led the Lady Knights in rebounding with five for the game. Her coach was pleased with the fundamentals she displayed.

“All of her rebounds were defensive rebounds. Her box out position was good and when she gets her hands on the ball an opponent is not going to take it away from her,” he said.

Lackey felt the biggest strength the Lady Jaguars possess is their speed.

“They have a lot of quickness. They’re going to cause a lot of havoc on the defensive end. We handled their press extremely well tonight and were able to get some lay ups in the later part of the game,” he said.

The coach said there are some areas that need to be more polished with his basketball team.

“We need to work on rebounding and taking care of the basketball. However, we are handling ourselves pretty well in pressure situations. We’re proving to ourselves that we’re a competitive club. We do have some things to work on but we’re getting there,” Lackey said.

Lackey changed his defensive strategy in the fourth quarter.

“When we got down we had to come out of our zone defense and had to go to man-to-man in an attempt to get the basketball back,” he said.

Unfortunately, the Forestview’s coach made an adjustment of his own.

“As soon as we did that, coach Beatty went into a stall offense that made it hard for us to get the ball back. We had to start fouling and that helped us get back into the ball game, but it wasn’t quite enough,” he said.

The Lady Knights fall to 2-2 and the Lady Jaguars raise their record to 3-1 for the season.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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