CHS GIRLS FIND LATE OPENING, WIN 48-44

After forcing 20 Cape Central turnovers Thursday at the Tiger Fieldhouse, the Kelly Lady Hawks' defense picked a bad time to fall asleep.

Kelly allowed Central's Kim Aslinger to drive in uncontested for an easy layup with 1:05 left to break a 44-44 tie in the Lady Tigers' 48-44 victory.

Central never trailed in improving its record to 11-5. Kelly, which tied the game twice in the fourth quarter, made just 10 of 26 free throws in falling to 13-5.

"We were very lucky to come away with a win," said Central coach Paula Watkins. "Kelly came in here ready to knock us off and darn near got the job done."

If not for their abysmal free-throw shooting, the Lady Hawks might have done just that. Kelly made just 3 of 7 in the final quarter, missing the front end of bonus free-throw situations twice.

"That was the key; we missed too many free throws," said Kelly coach Clay Vangilder. "We wanted to approach this where we played quarter-by-quarter and at the end of the game have a chance to win. We did that, we just didn't win."

A putback of a missed free throw by Kelly's Tiffany Glastetter tied the game at 44-44 with 2:50 left. Both teams missed opportunities to go ahead after that until Aslinger got left alone on the perimeter for her easy bucket.

Central was merely working the ball around the perimeter, until Aslinger found herself unguarded on the left wing because of a Kelly mix-up. Startled to be so wide open, the 5-foot-7 junior hesitated before driving hard to the basket for the game-winning basket.

"We were running our regular set offense, but we spread it out to try to isolate someone," Watkins said. "Kim got lost in the shuffle somehow."

Aslinger added two free throws with 13-seconds left to seal the victory. She finished with 14 points.

Central freshman Katie Dougherty scored a game-high 15 points and senior Amy Harris scored 11. Dougherty and Harris, both sporting solid orange-and-black-striped socks, added a team high eight rebounds.

Kelly got 12 points, including two 3-pointers, from Ashley Dirnberger.

Dougherty scored nine of her points in the first quarter when it appeared the Lady Tigers would rout Kelly. Central jumped to a 19-7 lead before Kelly closed the score to 19-11 entering the second quarter.

"Cape made a run in the first quarter and luckily that was the only one they made," Vangilder said. "I thought it was going to get ugly there."

After forcing seven turnovers in the opening quarter, the Lady Tigers gave those right back to Kelly by committing eight in the second quarter. Central led 27-23 at halftime.

"I thought we played well in the first quarter ... and then executed well enough at the end of the ball game," Watkins said. "In between there was nothing."

After the first quarter, Kelly played much more physical on the inside and outplayed the bigger Lady Tigers.

"We really tried to pack it inside," Vangilder said of Kelly's defense. "After the first quarter, we did a better job of that and we made some more adjustments in the second half."

"We let them manhandle us," said Watkins."They wanted to push us around and take the ball away and we let them do that."

Kelly finally tied the game 42-42 on a 3-pointer by Dirnberger with 3:21 left, but Central's Dionna Webb scored her only two points seconds later and Aslinger provided the Lady Tigers' final four points.