After suffering slow starts and losing some close battles throughout the season, Richard Wilhelm wanted his Patterson Mill girls basketball team to do something a bit different to kickstart Thursday night’s showdown against Havre de Grace.
Patterson Mill used an aggressive defense to cause passing lane disruptions, force turnovers and create scoring opportunities at the other end of the court on the way to a 47-30 home victory over the Warriors.
The 17-point victory marks the team’s fourth win over the last six games, bringing the team back to .500 with a 7-7 record. The two losses in that stretch — to Fallston and Bel Air — came by a combined seven points.
“We’ve been working really hard on our press because we want to make the game a little more up-tempo,” Wilhelm said, “so we started off with the press to try to force those turnovers and get the girls to jump the passes and be a little bit more aggressive, because we’ve been starting off really slow.
“We wanted something to kind of kickstart our game, so we started off with the press and we came out into a matchup 3-2 zone, which our top girls are super aggressive out there, trying to get into the passing lanes and try to make sure we’re putting as much pressure on the ball as possible ... I think we were really able to do that tonight.”
Havre de Grace had been riding a four-game win streak, but dropped to 6-4 following the tough loss.
Junior Kiley Wilhelm and freshman Rylie Madsen netted 12 points each to lead the Huskies. Ava Wheeler added eight points and sophomore Zoe Valan chipped in seven.
Freshman Sophia Trinh (five), sophomore Abby Shertzer (two) and senior Piper Steinkraus (one) rounded out the scoring.
“I think that once we pressure the ball, we create those turnovers and I think we worked really hard tonight in transition,” Kiley Wilhelm said. “We always try to spread the floor, get the defense moving to try to create those little pockets that we can get the ball through. ... I think everyone has their own skill and together everyone works really well.”
Savannah Lawrence helped lead the way for Havre de Grace, sharing the game-high with 13 points. Her 11 fourth-quarter points proved to be the only scoring of the last eight minutes for the Warriors. Carla Dunson also netted 13 points, which included all seven of the team’s third-quarter points and a trio of 3-pointers.
Madsen scored six of her 12 points in the first quarter to help the Huskies get off to a 13-4 lead. Patterson Mill’s offense continued producing points in transition in the third and fourth quarters while eight of the team’s 23 second-half points came at the free throw line on the way to the win.
Four of the Huskies’ seven losses this year came by five points or less, which could actually work in their favor in the long run as they head down the home stretch. With three home games against Harford Tech (Jan. 30), Fallston (Feb. 9) and Severna Park (Feb. 13) remaining, Coach Wilhelm hopes his team is starting to hit its stride at the right time.
他说：“我们正在越来越好。”“到本赛季结束时，我们希望成为我们需要达到顶峰的地方。我们现在正在攀登，我们正在大步前进 - 我们已经实现了这种化学反应 - 现在我们需要做的就是在那个完美的时刻达到顶峰。”