December 30, 1999
Calvert girls ride first-quarter surge to victory
By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor
Calvert coach Jim Kuhn is looking for his team to put together four quarters of perfection. Has been for quite some time now.
Wednesday night, though, one was good enough.
The Senecas stumbled through the final three quarters against McComb, but a near-perfect first quarter was enough foundation to post a 52-41 victory.
In that first quarter, the Senecas:
Ironically, after such awesome play, over the final three quarters the Senecas:
"The first quarter was real big," Kuhn said. "We took it to 'em, and really took their confidence away. We were a better ball club. The only thing we failed to do was keep it up for the next three quarters. We had spurts, and they were longer and better spurts, but we just didn't keep it going."
McComb was actually first to score when freshman Carrie Miller, who had a game-high 20 points, forced a turnover in the backcourt and sank a layup.
Calvert scored the next five points before McComb's Jessica Smith stuck a putback to make it 5-4 with only two minutes expired.
Then came the avalanche.
Kristen Kastner connected on a pair of short jumpers before Andrea Weber nailed a jumper off a backcourt steal to make it 11-4 Calvert.
Then, Sabrina Seitz hit back-to-back 3s and Hillary Hepp followed with another for a 20-4 advantage with two minutes left in the first.
Kastner finished off the spurt by sticking a turnaround jumper on the baseline, and then scoring off an assist from Seitz.
"We've had a lot of trouble getting off to an aggressive start," McComb coach Becky Reineke said after her team fell to 2-5. "I haven't found the key to get them going. We've talked about it over and over about starting aggressive and we've only done it one time so far. It's killing us because we have to play catch-up every game."
They almost caught the Senecas.
Beginning with a 14-9 push in the second quarter, the Panthers slowly began to chisel the lead away.
Calvert upped the ante back to 20 (44-24) to start the fourth, but Miller hit a pair of 3s in the early stages and drew McComb to within 10 (47-37) with four minutes left.
Calvert was shaky from the foul line in the stretch, hitting just three of their last eight, but McComb made just one field goal in the final four minutes.
The bulk of the Calvert scoring was split between Kastner (10), Seitz (10) and Andrea Weber (nine). Weber also paced Calvert to a 47-32 rebounding edge by grabbing 11. Carrie Weber had 10 boards and Kastner seven.
"If we have four quarters like we did the first, then I'm happy," coach Kuhn said. "They're trying hard, but they still don't see it. We tried to make some adjustments at the half, do some different things for the third quarter, but we saw everything but what we talked about. I'm not sure if it's a lack of concentration or a lack of confidence.
"We're working with some girls that have basketball in them," he said. "It just has yet to come out."
Miller was the lone Panther to score in double figures. Smith had eight points and eight rebounds.