Sports

Lady Bulldogs Turn In Complete Effort Against Alexander


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Head coach Wayne Horsley got a complete performance form his Athens Lady Bulldogs team in the first half of a 50-30 victory over rival Alexander on Thursday. Sophomore Dominique Doseck led the way with 18 points as seven Lady Bulldogs scored in the rout.

“I think we just played. (Athens has) a good group of kids, they share the ball well,” Horsley said on the fluidity of the offense after the game. “We don’t look for any one person. Obviously Dominique is our focal point but everyone on our team contributes.”

Athens established a comfortable lead early by moving the ball effectively and applying defensive pressure on the young Alexander ball handlers. The Lady Bulldogs were up 14-3 at the end of the first quarter. 

“That’s what happens when you have a young team, kind of an inexperienced team, to be able to execute a half-court set is the hardest thing to do,” Alexander coach Scott Hinton said. “(Athens is) a very good defensive team, and it’s hard to get into a half-court set and score points.”

Athens continued to be the aggressor in the second quarter. Doseck hit a pair of three-pointers to lead the Lady Bulldogs into the locker room with a 30-12 lead. Senior Kaylee Koker scored seven points in the first half for the Lady Spartans.

“We look to win every game we play,” Horsley said. “We truly try to take every game with the same intensity, the same approach. You know we want to come out and play our style of basketball and just attack and do what we do.”

The game was physical from the start, as the two teams combined for 40 team fouls on the night. As the contest progressed, turnovers and sloppy play began to plaque the Lady Bulldogs.

“I can’t discredit our defensive effort tonight,” Hinton said. “We played very hard, we were very physical on the cutters…we did the things we wanted to do on defense, but on offense we have to execute better.”

Koker finished the game with 14 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore Allyson Malone added six points for Alexander. Doseck had three steals to go with her game-high 18 points, and junior Hannah DeBruin contributed eight points of her own. Athens cruised to an easy victory despite just 20 second-half points to Alexander’s 18.

“The first half (of the season), people may say the excuses, ‘We’re young, we’re inexperienced, we didn’t have a lot of people who played last year.’ Those excuses go away when you play in the second half of the league,” Hinton said. “We want to just continue to get better like we said at the beginning of the season. If we are able to do that, we’ll be able to go compete and win a few of these (games) the second half.”

Next up, Athens (11-2, 5-0 TVC-Ohio) travels to Meigs on Monday while Alexander (4-10, 1-4 TVC-Ohio) hosts Vinton County on the same day.