ROCKFORD — Call it Costco basketball; Lutheran wins in bulk.
The Crusaders came at Byron in waves, throwing up 25 shots in the first quarter alone, in Tuesday’s 61-30 Big Northern West girls basketball victory over Byron.
Lutheran led 37-22 at halftime, with the Crusaders attempting 42 shots to Byron’s 17.
“If we have anything less than 70 shots a game, that’s a failure to us,” Lutheran coach Joni Carlson said. “We try to get as many shots up at the basket as we can. That’s one thing the girls will never get yelled at for doing is shooting the basketball.
“It’s like that quote, ‘You miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take.’ My kids, that’s their favorite quote. They live by that.”
Byron, led by Emily Lehne’s 12 points, tried to deny the Crusaders (15-4, 3-1) layups in their half-court offense, so Lutheran countered by taking the first open jumper it saw. Heather Baeir (13 points), Laura Rushing (13) and Hillary Deppe responded with a flurry of midrange jumpers.
“With a soft zone, the only way to attack it is to shoot from the outside and try to rebound,” Dawn Martin (nine points) said. “They were definitely cutting off our lanes for dribble drives.”
When Lutheran missed, the Crusaders often got it back to try again. Lutheran finished with a 20-4 edge in offensive rebounds.
The Crusaders also hounded Byron (6-12, 2-3) into turnovers. Byron’s two previous Big Northern defeats were by one point each and the Tigers were tied with Lutheran 10-all midway through the first quarter. Lutheran then forced six turnovers in a 14-0 run and never led by fewer than nine points again.
The Crusaders finished with a 15-4 edge in turnovers.
“That’s the least amount of turnovers we had the whole year,” Martin said. “Everybody was feeling it.”
And shooting it. Often.
“We haven’t always had the chance to shoot that much,” Deppe said. “That was nice.
“We all take our turns. If one or two of us is off, or even three of us, we have other people who are on.”
“Our guards,” Carlson said, “are good on the outside and they can also drive. They are hard to defend. And we have more than one of them.”
And shots enough for all.
- Matt Trowbridge, rrstar.com
