Sports

Chatham Grinds Out Low Scoring Affair

Team relies on defense, free throws to seal 36-31 win over Villa Walsh.

When Chatham sophomore Amanda Berntsen scored four quick points at the beginning of the first quarter—two of which came on a breakaway after the game's opening tip—it seemed as if the Lady Cougars' game against the Villa Walsh Vikings would be a fast-moving, high-scoring contest.

But Chatham—whose players wore pink-tinted jerseys during the game in support of breast cancer awareness—would score only two more points in the quarter, and the low scoring was a sign of things to come for both teams for the rest of the game. Chatham capitalized on clutch free throw shooting and good defense to beat Villa Walsh, 36-31, on Cougar Night.

"I feel fortunate that we won," Head Coach Joe Gaba said. "We did a great job tonight playing defense. They took us out of our element [offensively]."

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Berntsen scored Chatham's final two points of the quarter, which ended with the Lady Cougars leading 6-5. Senior Caroline Murphy established herself as a presence in the defensive paint early on with an emphatic blocked shot.

Murphy continued with several blocked shots in the second quarter as the Cougars began to spread the scoring around on offense. Sophomore Lauren Winschuh, junior Kelsey Davies, freshman Kendall Davies, sophomore Sam Kennedy and Murphy all scored in the quarter, and Chatham consistently beat the Vikings to loose balls. But Villa Walsh senior Kelsey Manning kept her team in the game, scoring all its eight second quarter points. She finished with a game-high 13.

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At halftime, Chatham led 20-13. But Villa Walsh ate into Chatham's lead in the third quarter, finally taking the lead with 2:40 left in the period after missing a chance to go ahead earlier in the quarter.

Chatham quickly regained the lead, and junior Kelsey Hart hit two free throws with no time remaining on the clock after being fouled at the end of the period to make the score 27-24. The Lady Cougars got the ball back with a little over one second left in the quarter after a Villa Walsh inbound pass went out of bounds.

And Villa Walsh would not lead again. With scoring at a premium—each team scored only two points in the quarter's first half, and Chatham turned the ball over often—the Vikings whittled the Lady Cougars' lead to one point with 1:30 to go in the game.

"We were playing well in the beginning, and then the team—myself included—was playing out of control," Berntsen said. "We weren't passing the ball quickly enough."

But another Murphy block with 30 seconds to go kept the Vikings from having an opportunity to tie the score, and Berntsen and Davies sank their free throws at the end of the game to seal the five-point win.

"I just kept my cool at the free throw line," Bernsten said.

She led the team with 12 points.

Gaba was pleased his team found a way to win without scoring very often.

"When we're not clicking on offense, we can rely on playing some pretty solid defense," he said.

The 10-3 Lady Cougars will take on Jefferson Township at home on Tuesday at 7 p.m.


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