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Girls Basketball: Short-handed Rosary edges out Larkin
Updated: December 14, 2011 9:37PM
For a team missing leading scorer Karly Tate and point guard Courtney Bila, Rosary’s girls basketball team had to find a way to scratch out a win against Larkin at the Oswego Holiday Classic Wednesday.
Despite leading by only two points as late as the 3:45 mark of the fourth quarter, Rosary was able to pull away late and post a 55-51 win.
Tate had her appendix removed last Thursday and is expected to be out until early January. Bila injured her knee in Monday’s loss to Oswego, but could be back in Saturday’s tournament finale.
“Tate’s averaging 14 points a game and Courtney is averaging nine, so that’s basically 23 points gone,” Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. “We’re making due and I’m proud of that effort.”
Taylor Gibson stepped up her scoring, posting 14 of her game-high 17 points in the second half for Rosary (5-7). She started the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and then hit 6-of-6 from the free-throw line down the stretch after Larkin (1-9) crept to within two points on two separate occasions.
“We have two of our starters out, so I think each of us had to pick up the slack a little bit and contribute to the win,” Gibson said. “I think that was my individual contribution.”
Every time Rosary took a large lead, Larkin had an answer. After Rosary pushed the lead to nine in the second quarter, Maggie Hoffman (team-high 12 points) came off the bench to engineer a personal 8-2 run to close the half and cut the lead to 25-22 at the break.
A 15-4 run that featured seven points from Emily Popovich in the third pushed the lead to 40-28, the largest of the game for Rosary. But a 9-0 run early in the fourth cut the lead to 46-44 before Rosary had to scramble to push the lead back out.
“I figured Larkin was going to keep coming at us,” Beebe said. “Every time I’ve watched them this year, they don’t lack any heart. We’re glad to get the win.”
It was an interesting situation on the bench for Beebe. His former player and assistant coach, Taylor Richmond, is now an assistant for Larkin. She is also the sister of starting Rosary guard Madison Richmond, who scored 12 points in the win.
“That was very unique,” Beebe said. “I never had to do that before. Plus it was unique for her, coaching against her sister.”
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