Foul trouble hinders Lady Railroaders in non-conference road loss at Eaton
EATON – The weary Bradford Lady Railroaders have played four games in seven days and that grind seemed to have caught up them this past Monday night. The Division IV Railroaders traveled to Eaton to play the Division II Lady Eagles. Eaton has a deeper bench and were able to keep the game at a fast pace. Bradford has a shallow bench and the speed of the game simply wore them down. Bradford would fall 57-46.
“They were very athletic and tough to defend,” said Bradford coach, Chris Besecker. “Their Lily Shepard was especially difficult to defend. We hurt ourselves getting into foul trouble. We sent them to the line in the first half and that was the margin we were down because we sent them to the free throw line. But we learned, in the second half we didn’t foul near as much.”
In addition to the fast pace of the game, Bradford had two starters get in foul trouble in the first half. Post player Brooklyn Crickmore had 3-fouls by the break and Austy Miller, the leading scorer in the WOAC, had four. This hampered their defense as both players could not afford to be too aggressive. Miller not only played clean defense in the second half – avoiding her fifth foul which would have put her on the bench, she lead the Railroaders in scoring with 24-points.
“Austy Miller did have to ‘surrender’ a few times in the second half on defense because of her four fouls,” Besecker noted. “She did a nice job of keeping herself in the game.”
Eaton pressed most of the game. This forced the Railroaders to exert extra energy just working the ball down the court every possession. They substituted freely and were able to keep fresh bodies on the court. Bradford played mostly zone defense during the night although they did employ a man to man defense at times.
Bradford was down by 8 at halftime 30-22, still within striking distance. But they could not find a way to stop Eagle Lily Shepard. She scored 11 of her 25-points in the third quarter, allowing Eaton to pull ahead even more. Although the Railroaders kept pace with the Eagles, they simply did not have the energy to make a push in the last quarter.
The 7-win and 2-loss Railroaders get two days rest before playing another road game at Lehman Catholic on Thursday. Then they get a break before playing in the Covington Holiday tournament on December 28th and 29th.
Bradford Scoring: Austy Miller 24, Izzy Hamilton 1, Rylee Canan 15, Brooklyn Crickmore 6.
Eaton Scoring: Mize 4, Kramer 6, Shepard 25, Orr 6, Miller 5, Mowen 3, Bauman 8.
