Mathews’ defense shuts down Miles, Lady Panthers

Charles City’s Kiandra Randall (20) makes it tough for Mathews’ Kai McCann to get a clean look for a shot at the basket.

Andre' Jones photo

A Jan. 8 Conference 42 matchup with defending champion Charles City Lady Panthers and runner-up Mathews Lady Blue Devils pitted the top two teams from last year. It was apparent that after having a sour taste of defeat for nearly a year, the visiting Lady Blue Devils sought revenge for last year’s shortcoming.

Using a balanced offensive attack and applying a defense to slow down Lady Panther leading scorer Adrienne Miles, Mathews cruised to a 46-29 victory over the hosts in the conference opener for both teams.

After Miles and teammate Hailey Holmes drained the first two baskets of the game to open a 5-0 lead for the hosts, Mathews quickly initiated a diamond-and-one defense on Miles, a principle strategy to have one player guard the leading scorer while the other four play a zone defense. The ploy worked enough in the first quarter, allowing Mathews to crawl back into the game and trail Charles City by two after the first quarter (8-6).

Mathews’ Savanna Wooten opened the second quarter with a lay-up to knot the game at eight apiece. Moments later, she connected with a three-pointer in front of the hosts’ bench to give Mathews the lead for good. After Miles followed her own miss with a floater, Lady Blue Devil Kirsten Beatley connected with a long jumper, sparking a 13-3 run for the visitors to head into intermission with a 24-13 lead.

Exchanging rims didn’t help slow down the visitors, as the Lady Panthers watched Mathews’ Kai McCann open the third quarter scoring her team’s first six points. The lead grew to 15 with her free throw at the 3:52 mark.

Charles City’s best run came at the end of the third. A Veondra Brown free throw was followed by back-to-back scores from Holmes to reduce the deficit to 10 (35-25).

However, the hosts would fail to get the margin into single digits, as Mathews continued to throw multiple defenders at Miles and no other Lady Panther could pick up the scoring slack. Miles’ steal and lay-up at the 5:20 mark in the fourth quarter accounted for the only points as Mathews clinched the victory.

After the game, Lady Panther head coach VaShaun Otey commented on the lack of scoring and execution to find baskets throughout the game.

“We started off hot after the first two baskets, but after that we shut down offensively,” commented the disappointed head coach. “Once again, we were stagnant on offense and turnovers plagued us.”

Also playing a vital role in the Lady Panthers’ loss was the inability to stay out of foul trouble. The Lady Panthers racked up 26 fouls, ironically resulting in 17 points for the visitors, the margin of defeat for the hosts.

“We played good initial defense but second chance opportunities hurt us and we fouled them,” Otey continued. “We are a better team than how we played tonight and we will play better.”

Despite being the target of a diamond-and-one defense, Miles’ led Charles City (6-3) with 13 points. Holmes added 11, Brown tossed in three, and Kiandra Randall chipped in two.

Wooten’s 13 and McCann’s 11 led the Lady Blue Devils’ who placed eight players in the scoring column.