February, 18,2000

Hopewell keeps it tough

By John Montgomery
Sports Writer

BASCOM &emdash; It's always been said that offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

It's a cliché almost as old as sports, but it was right on the money Thursday.

Hopewell-Loudon used its pressure defense to force 25 turnovers, limit Calvert to just three offense rebounds and hold the Senecas to only 12 first half points on the way to winning its 53rd straight Midland Athletic League game and claiming at least a share of its fifth straight MAL title by a 53-32 margin.

A win by the Chieftains over Mohawk Saturday gives Hopewell-Loudon, now 9-0 in the MAL, the outright crown. St. Joseph edged New Riegel 61-60 Thursday to move to 9-1 in the league.

"As long as our defense keeps tough, we're tough to stop," said coach Doug Reynolds, who picked up career win No. 150 against 35 losses in his eighth year at Hopewell-Loudon.

And that defense made the Chieftains very tough to stop, but it took a while.

Hopewell-Loudon's Kara Johnson opened the scoring with a 3-pointer that was answered by two low post buckets by Calvert's Kristen Kastner, who led the Senecas with 10 points.

Johnson tossed in a jumper from the right wing with 5:00 left in the opening quarter for a 5-4 Hopewell-Loudon lead that was erased seconds later when Sabrina Seitz scored on a drive to put Calvert (11-8 overall, 5-4 MAL) up 6-5.

Then Hopewell-Loudon's defense took over.

The Chieftains forced five turnovers over the next 3:52, scoring immediately off two of them as part of a 8-0 run, on the way to grabbing a 13-6 lead.

And it would have stayed that way had Andrea Weber not been able to drive the lane and sink a buzzer-beater for Calvert to cut the lead to 13-8.

Roshelle Stull and Susie Norris, who finished with 12 points, both scored within the first 40 seconds of the second quarter to put Hopewell-Loudon, 17-2 overall and ranked third in Division IV, on top 17-8

Laura Kuhn's first bucket of the game for Calvert trimmed the lead to 17-10 with 6:32 to play before halftime.

But the Chieftains' defense again stole the show, keeping Calvert scoreless for just over six minutes and forcing five turnovers, while their offense slowly built a 26-10 advantage.

Weber again broke the scoring drought with a drive for the Senecas, this time with 26 seconds left in the period, to make it 26-12 at halftime.

Calvert hopes of a second half comeback were put to rest in the third quarter.

Lindsay Borer netted six of her game-high 14 points that quarter to help the Chieftains build an 18-point cushion (40-22) by the start of the fourth quarter.

Calvert's best chance to chip away at the Hopewell-Loudon lead came with just over five minutes left in the game.

A Lindsay Snyder foul shot put the Chieftains up 45-26 at the 5:14 mark, but Hopewell-Loudon went cold over the next 2:36.

The only problem for the Senecas was that their offense was just as frigid.

Both teams combined for nine turnovers, three jump balls and a foul before Borer scored from down low with 2:38 to play for the Chieftains.

She added low post bucket after another Calvert turnover to push Hopewell-Loudon's lead to 49-26 with 2:01 to go and the Senecas wouldn't recover.

It was a stretch that Reynolds said show Hopewell-Loudon can't just walk onto the court and expect to walk away with a win.

"Teams are going to make us work, and if anybody thinks we're just going to step out and win a game, that's not it," he said. "Our girls know that they have to come and they have to play.

"I was very proud of our defense. We held them to 32 points with those two big girls (Kastner and Kuhn) and I thought we did a good job," Reynolds said.

The Chieftains simply owned the boards, with Borer and Snyder each hauling in 12 to help Hopewell-Loudon out-rebound the Senecas 37-17.

Borer also snared seven steals while Stull had six

Kastner grabbed six for Calvert.

Calvert coach Jim Kuhn said he was pleased with his team's overall effort, but added that his Senecas should have tried to use their height advantage a little more.

"They worked for the highest percentage shot. The highest percentage shot in basketball is how close you can get to the basket and that's called a layup," he said. "Our girls inside, we worked, we got our looks we wanted inside.

"We've just got to be patient. I think we'll have to utilize our height down the road in the tournament," he said.

"Our big girls scored for us (Kastner with 10, Kuhn with 8)," Kuhn said. "But we didn't get it to them enough and they missed some bunnies.