Girls Basketball: Devils beat Panthers at own game

Updated: January 21, 2012 10:52PM

GRIFFITH — So how do you win your first girls basketball Northwest Crossroads Conference crown?

Well, if you’re Lowell, you go on the road and out-Griffith the host Panthers.

You play patient, fundamentally sound defense like Griffith has for years under coach Tom Golumbeck.

You cause turnovers. You grab rebounds. You also play patient offense.

And the end result for Lowell was a resounding 46-27 victory on Saturday night, and a posed team photo for the NCC champs.

It definitely wasn’t a coincidence that the Red Devils (13-3, 6-0 NCC) followed Griffith’s usual strategy of tough, hard-nosed defense.

“From day one last year, we’ve preached defense, and I think the kids have bought into that philosophy because defense leads to offense,” Lowell coach Katie Antcliff said.

In the first half, the defense on both sides was average with multiple runs allowed. Lowell opened with an 8-0 lead on a couple 3-pointers. Griffith came back with a 9-0 run on three 3-pointers. The Red Devils responded with another 8-0 burst. At halftime it was a barn-burner with Lowell clinging to a 23-22 lead.

Then Lowell turned up the “D” big time by holding the Panthers (13-4, 5-1) to just two points in the third quarter on two free throws from Sammi Adams, who fouled out with just seven points, and just one field goal in the second half — it came with 1:28 left in the game.

“After we hit a couple 3s (to start the game) and Griffith called timeout, I told the girls the only way we’re going to beat them is on the inside,” Antcliff said. “We preached to get the ball inside and let Katie (Bobos) and (Mackenzie) Kreutz work.”

And that they did. Kreutz tied for the scoring lead with 16 points while grabbing nine rebounds. Bobos matched the 16 points, but more than doubled the boards with 20, as well as seven blocked shots.

Golumbeck had to give kudos to the mirror image of his squad.

“They were the better team tonight,” he said. “I told the kids we didn’t do a good job of competing and you have to credit Lowell for that.”

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