Sunday, January 31, 1999

Tornadoes toe foul line to zap Crimson Flashes

By Ed Fox
Sports Writer

Don't put Columbian girls on the foul line.

That should be a warning for opponents the rest of the season.

The Tornadoes connected on 21-of-27 charity tosses in Saturday's 55-43 win over Willard.

But, it should come as no surprise as Columbian leads the Northern Ohio League in free throw accuracy at 68.9 percent.

Unfortunately for Willard, the Tornadoes made frequent visits to the foul line in the fourth quarter and converted on 16-of-18 attempts.

That helped Columbian outscore the Crimson Flashes by a 20-4 margin in the fourth quarter. The Tornadoes trailed by as many as seven (34-27) after a Rachel Carr baseline jumper with 5:19 to go in the third quarter.

Willard, dropping to 8-7 overall and 6-5 in the league, was still in front by five (39-34) after 6-1 junior Alanna Buurma scored off a rebound in the final minute of the third quarter.

Columbian added a free throw by 5-3 junior guard Katie Fazekas with just 20 seconds left in the period to start an 11-0 run which propelled the Tornadoes to a 45-39 lead after two free throws by Kris Keirns with 3:44 to go in the game.

After Kendra Shoup scored for the Flashes to trim the Columbian lead to 45-41, the Tornadoes consistently made their free throws down the stretch to keep Willard at bay.

''We really stepped up the defense and stepped up our intensity in the second half,'' said Columbian head coach Larry Kisabeth. ''The score was 39-35 Willard when we went on a 20-4 run to close out the game and you can attribute that to our defense. I thought we really stepped it up and started to execute better offensively.

''We were 16-of-18 from the line in the last quarter. When we got the lead, we saw that we were in the bonus and what we wanted to do was to keep the ball out of Willard's hands and our kids have run that delay game very well all year.''

Fazekas, who caused havoc for Willard the entire game with her pesky defense, took over the fourth quarter with 12 of her game-leading 18 points. She was 12-of-15 for the game from the foul line with 10-of-12 the last quarter.

''I can't say enough about Katie Fazekas. She really hung in there and took care of business for us,'' said Kisabeth.

Fazekas was hitting 71.1 percent from the foul line coming into the game. She is 11th in the league and the Tornadoes have two others in the top 10 including Kristin Seitz (83.3 percent) and Erin Moore (76 percent).

Joining Fazekas in double figures for the Tornadoes, who improved to 8-5 overall and 6-3 in the league, were Moore with 13 and Jenny Bergstrom with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Moore was plagued with foul trouble and sat out six minutes in the second half with her fourth personal.

''I thought Kelly Snyder came in and played a great game for us. Kris Keirns isn't known for her defense but came up with a couple steals. Those two girls in particular really did a nice job. Jenny Bergstrom did a great jobcontaining Buurma who is a great player for them. We were able to get better help defensively against Buurma the second half. We didn't come in as tight on her,'' said Kisabeth.

Buurma and Taylor McFarland formed a 1-2 punch for Willard with 17 and 12 points respectively. Buurma also had eight rebounds.

''I thought the nightmare began late in the third quarter for us. Things shifted, calls shifted, fouls shifted. Everything seemed to shift and it's hard enough when you're on the road and momentum shifts,'' said Willard head coach Barry Pfahl. ''In that fourth quarter we just didn't do things we needed to do. We were forcing stuff. We got impatient and our youth showed. We just didn't do a good job taking care of the ball.''

The Flashes committed 10 of their 21 turnovers in the fourth quarter and hit just 1-of-7 from the floor.

''We had two intentional fouls and I told the girls we only had one over the past seven years. That's just young kids wanting to get after the ball and being overly aggressive to do it.

''Fazekas is a great leader for them. She took care of the ball, got the ball in the right places and hit free throws when she needed to. Foul trouble with McFarland and (Laurie) Turner really hurt. We can't afford to lose those two kids in the final minutes and got to have them be able to play their game,'' said Pfahl.