Deane drives Southport girls past Bloomington North
All Miranda Deane needed was a chance to shoot.
Now, 22 times, Southport's girls' basketball team coughed up the basketball before the senior and three-year starter could take one. She herself was part of the problem.
"Goldfish memory," Southport coach Adam Morlock said. "Shake it off and go make a play."
So when Ava Robbennolt got a sputtering Bloomington North within 35-33 by knocking down a 3-pointer with 3:16 left, Deane did the same thing at the other end with 2:55 to go.
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When Mallory Barrow drove to the lane to score for the Cougars with 1:40 to go, Deane responded in kind and was fouled. She made the first, missed the second free throw but ran down the rebound. She drove and scored for a six-point lead that became 10 with a steal and layup by, yes, Deane.
So it was more hit than miss for the Cardinals, who finally put away North, 49-38, Friday night in a Conference Indiana contest at the Cougar Den.
"Miranda's just super tough," Morlock said. "I can't say enough about her. She's the person I'm in her ear all the time about making adjustments on the floor. Making great decisions, getting everyone involved. Miranda takes all of that and always does the best she can.
"She 5-3 and 125 pounds, but she's tough as nails. I wouldn't trade her for anybody."
Deane finished with 23 points, going 9-of-11 while making her last nine shots, including three 3-pointers. She had 19 in the second half when the Cardinals (4-4, 1-2) shot a blistering 12-of-18 (67%) and North could hardly keep up.
"She had had some good games," North coach Jeff Turmail said. "She has good ball control. She had a great shooting night that forced us to play her differently from the 3-point line than we were expecting."
It opened up driving lanes and she was able to finish among North's taller trees.
"We've worked on her being a three-level player," Morlock said. "And at her size, it's really hard to do that. But we've worked a lot on those finishes and floater action.
"She's really embraced it and put in the time. Just proud of her."
Zoned out on defense
The Cougars (4-5, 0-1) wound up shooting 40 percent and went just 5-of-18 on 3s and couldn't convert at the free throw line, either, going 5-of-14.
Ava Robbennolt had 11 points, Avery Patterson nine and Ava Reitmeyer eight.
It was just one of those nights but Southport's 1-2-2 and 3-2 zones clearly had something to do with it, making it difficult to get the ball in the paint to either score or free up North's shooters. Leading scorer Mia Robbennolt took just three shots.
"We were mixing it up, just to try to throw them off," Morlock said. "They have a lot of young, talented kids, so if you're switching defenses, the hope is, their confused and taking some time to figure out what they're in and it just eats the clock.
"It was part of the game plan and the girls did a nice job."
Southport had a 10-0 run in the second quarter, a 9-0 run in the third and the game-clinching 7-0 burst at the end.
"We are a good 3-point shooting team. We've shown that," Turmail said. "We're a good free throw shooting team. We've shown that. It's just sometimes, one thing doesn't go well, then another and it puts more pressure on our defense."
And even after a stop, Southport was able to beat North to the other end of the floor and get one of its perplexing zones set up.
"They did a great job getting back in transition," Turmail said. "We were very limited in our transition offense."
North kept coming back
Despite that, North was never out of it until the final minute.
North got off to a solid start, shooting 4-of-5 in the first quarter, but stunted by six of its 11 first-half turnovers, led just 10-7.
Southport also turned the ball over 11 times and went eight minutes with just a single field goal. But then they went on a 10-0 run, ignited by a Deane 3 at 4:05 of the second, to lead 17-15 at halftime.
The Cougars scored just one point between Robbennolt's 3 with 20 seconds left in the first but got a four-point flurry from Ava Reitmeyer in the final 16 seconds that included a layup to beat the buzzer.
A Deane seven-point outburst helped build a 28-17 lead with 2:00 to go in the third, but the Cougars kept chipping away and a 3 by Patterson helped cut the deficit with 35-30 with 4:36 to go.
Then Deane struck again with eight points in the final three minutes.
"I thought anytime we had some of the dry spells offensively, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense to make zero mistakes," Turmail said. "Because you've got to get stop after stop after stop.
"I thought the way we fought in the second half, we stayed in there, even when as a team, you're feeling like you're not playing the best that you can. You just need to give yourself a chance at the end and with a minute and a half, I think we still had that chance."
SOUTHPORT 49, BLOOMINGTON NORTH 38
Southport (49)
Mitchell f 2-5 1-2 5, Deane f 9-11 2-4 23, Scott f 4-7 4-6 13, Reed f 1-2 0-0 2, Nool g 1-3 0-2 2, Galbraith 1-2 0-0 2, Martinez 0-0 0-0 0, McMasters 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 19-33 7-14 49.
Bloomington North (38)
M.Robbinnolt f 1-3 1-2 3, Mayes f 1-1 0-0 2, Patterson g 3-7 1-2 9, Reitmeyer g 3-5 2-8 8, A.Robbennolt g 4-8 0-0 11, McDivitt 0-5 0-0 0, Ma.Barrow 2-6 1-2 5, Lian 0-0 0-0 0, Rice 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 14-35 5-14 38.
Southport (4-4, 1-2 CI) 7 | 10 | 13 | 19 — 49
Bloomington North (4-5, 1-1) 10 | 5 | 9 | 14 — 38
3-point goals: Southport 4-7 (Deane 3-4, Scott 1-2, Reed 0-1), Bloomington North 5-18 (A.Robbennolt 3-5, Patterson 2-4, M.Robbennolt 0-1, McDivitt 0-4, Ma.Barrow 0-4). Rebounds: Southport 27 (Mitchell 8); Bloomington North 17 (M.Robbennolt 5). Team fouls: Southport 13, Bloomington North 20. Turnovers: Southport 22, Bloomington North 19. JV: Southport, 40-34 OT.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Deane drives Southport girls past Bloomington North