South County Girls Head to Districts on High Note

The South County girls extended their winning streak to four games with a 41-22 win on the road against Lee.

The Lancers began the game in a 2-3 zone, and Jasmine Thomas did a fairly good job of containing South County's top scorer, Simone Antwi. Over the first four minutes of the game, the Stallions were held to four points, but Lee ran a patient offense that hesitated to pass the ball down low. Without a scoring attack to compliment their defense, the Lancers finished the first quarter down by seven points.

Lee got their offense moving with a 5-0 run in the second quarter and guard Meghan Cox drained a long three-pointer to come within two points. The Stallions controlled the boards defensively, but the shots they took inside the paint failed to drop. Near the end of the half, South County started taking advantage of the Lancers zone defense and began shooting from the perimeter. The Stallions also switched to a full-court press, at the request of Antwi, and that got South County's juices flowing.

In the third quarter, with Thomas on the bench, the Stallions had better success moving the ball inside and scored easily from the post. Stallion guard Alex Brown did a good job of running the offense and found herself open for a couple 3-pointers. The Lancers, led by Meghan Cox and Jessica Kolonich, continued to play hard for four quarters, but in the end couldn't get their offense to score.

"We're a young team inside," said Lee coach Harold Jackson. "We need another season to really get our inside game in place."

Jackson, now in his third year as the Lancers head coach, has various conditioning and training camps set up for the offseason, which he needs his players to participate in if they are not to repeat their one win season.

With the Patriot District tournament next week, South County coach Chrissy Kelly feels that each player has to contribute in order to go deep into the tournament.

"We have a tendency to turn the ball over unforced," said Kelly. "We're never going to blow anybody out, so we have to take care of the defensive end of the court, make the easy shots and control the boards. If we can keep it close, I think we always have a chance."

Next year Kelly will lose eight seniors, but doesn't feel the pressure to win districts now or not for another three years.

"We hope that our girls have left a legacy and mindset and that we [as coaches] have built a strong enough foundation that the next group that steps up understands what they're walking into," Kelly added. "I know that you can't teach experience, but if they work hard in the off-season it closes the lack of experience gap."

Antwi led South County in scoring with 17 points. Brown had nine.

Meghan Cox scored 11 points for the Lancers.