Central falls to Bishop Miege, 68-39
Dec. 3—SAINT JOSEPH, Mo. — The Central girls suffered their first loss of the season, sputtering in the second half en route to a 69-38 loss to Bishop Miege on Thursday at the CHS Coliseum.
Though it was an ugly game for the Indians (1-1), senior Ella Moody knows better than to put too much stock in an early season game against the Stags.
"We knew it was gonna be tough, they're always tough competition at the beginning of the year when we aren't in our groove yet," she said. "I thought we came out hard, with a lot of intensity, and it just didn't fall in our direction."
Against a routinely excellent Bishop Miege (1-0) program, Central coach Roger Wiebelt-Smith knows that his team has to be as sharp as possible to keep up.
"We knew coming in that we'd have to play well to have a chance, and we just didn't execute the way we wanted to execute," he said. "I don't fault the kid's effort, I felt like they fought hard. We had just too many breakdowns on the defensive end."
Central opened the game in a 16-5 hole after the first timeout, and were able to get that to 16-9 by the first quarter's end. The Indians kept pace for much of the second period before a pair of back-to-back three-pointers late in the quarter gave the Stags a 37-22 lead going into the locker room.
But it was the third quarter where the game began to get out of their control, as the Indians were outscored by a 13-2 deficit.
Early season injuries left the Indians undermanned, and in a high-effort game against a dangerous team, that began to play a role.
"I think it was a very high intensity game, by the end of it we were just gassed," Moody said. "We'd already gone 100% the whole game, so I think we just kind of fell apart there at the end. But you can't win them all."
Wiebelt-Smith was generally happy with the team's effort and was encouraged that many of their faults in the game are fixable, but acknowledged that they had work to do.
"We're just offensively not clicking yet," he said. "As a coach, I just have to find ways to get us clicking."
Central was outscored 31-17 in the second half. Junior Lauren Wells led the team with 10 points.
After a close win against Benton last week and a spirited loss at home, Wiebelt Smith is excited to see how they respond in the Liberty North Invitational next week.
"I like the resolve of the group right now, they didn't hang their heads, get mad at each other, or question things," he said. "They were still together, and that's exciting, because that's a game right there where you could tuck your tail and run."
Levi Smith can be reached at levi.smith@newspressnow.com.
