Lady Bulldogs cruise

Michael Pineda
The Duncan Banner

EMPIRE December 19, 2008 10:15 am

— What the Empire Lady Bulldogs lacked in ballhandling, they made up for in shooting touch.
Empire shot 16-of-24 from the field to overcome 34 turnovers in a 36-26 win over Temple Thursday night. Andrea McCormick had a career night for the Lady Bulldogs with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Fourteen of McCormick’s points came in the second half.
“The game plan was to get her the ball,” Empire head coach Rickey Rhoades said. “There are two things that are killing us right now: passing in the lane and turning the ball over. But getting this win couldn’t come at a better time going into the Christmas break.”
The win was the second of the year for the Lady Bulldogs, who will have a rematch with Temple in the first round of the Grandfield Tournament. Empire will look to get off to a quicker start the second go-round. The first lacked any offensive fireworks as the Lady Bulldogs took a 4-0 lead into the second quarter and a 12-9 lead at the half after Shana Schlein hit a basket at the buzzer.
Empire held Temple to 3-of-25 shooting in the first half but turned the ball over 15 times. The turnovers continued to mount for the Lady Bulldogs in the second half but good shooting once they broke the press kept the lead in their favor.
Schlein scored her fourth point of the game to extend the Empire lead to 19-11 midway through the third quarter. Temple closed the gap to four points but was unable to account for McCormick, who proved unstoppable in the paint.
The Lady Bulldogs took a 23-16 lead into the fourth quarter and went to McCormick early and often and the post player responded with 10 points in the final eight minutes. Temple made it a three-point game one minute into the quarter on a couple of baskets by Glasgow but did little to help itself from that point on. The Lady Tigers had an abysmal effort at the free throw line, making 2-of-11.
Empire kept its composure despite the amount of turnovers it committed and made the shots down the stretch to secure the win and improve to 2-5 on the season.
“We had four assists tonight and that was a large number for us,” Rhoades said. “We are going to have to improve in that category. We also had to overcome some injuries. We lost Tanda Pollock to a torn MCL and Jaci Vinson hurt her knee tonight. But I was proud of the way the girls responded.”
Dakota Brown also had a big night for Empire, scoring eight points and bringing down 10 rebounds.

Empire 36, Temple 26
EHS 4 8 11 13 36
THS 0 9 7 10 26

Empire — Andrea McCormick 16, Dakota Brown 8, Whitney Jennings 5, Shana Schlein 4, Kayla Fuller 2, Harley Spanhanks 1.
Temple — Glasgow 7, Gonzalez 7, Voschata 7, Lipscomb 5.

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