Lady Falcons fall short against Lady Warriors 57-53

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ADAMS TOWNSHIP – Clinton-Massie stormed out of a 16-point hole at Brian P. Mudd Court Saturday versus SBAAC American Division rival Goshen to within one posssession of tying or taking the lead only to fall 57-53.

Massie’s last four losses are by a combined 11 points.

“We just fell short again,” CM head coach Hilma Crawford said. “It’s frustrating.”

The Falcons (1-5, 0-2) trailed 53-37 with 5:34 left in the game. McKenna Branham sparked a 14-0 run with a three to pull Massie to within 53-51 with 1:46 left in the game. The spurt also included a bucket and a pair of free throws by Aidan Eades who led the Falcons with 18 points, another free throw from Branham, an offensive putback and pull-up jumper by Miranda Crawford, and a layup by Sydney Crowe.

“They let us get within two and we should’ve taken advantage more of it,” Crawford said.

Katrina Hopper’s baseline jumper stopped the run and put the Warriors (3-3, 2-1) up 55-51 with 90 seconds left in the contest. Hopper led all scorers with 19 points.

The teams traded turnovers until Goshen’s Peyton Shafer hit a pair of free throws with :28.9 left to provide some breathing room.

“We have to learn situations in the game, especially when it gets close,” Crawford said. “We have to know when to foul. When we made a bucket, we need to find our man.”

Goshen built its cushion with a 12-2 run to end the first quarter with a 20-9 advantage. The Warriors also scored nine of the first 11 points in the build their largest lead of the evening, 29-11 with 4:32 left in the first half. And then the Warriors, as head coach Mark Short said, “Hung on for dear life.”

“We haven’t been in a situation like that yet this year. They have several times. We told our kids several times coming into tonight, no matter what the score is, their kids are going to play hard all the way through,” Short said. “And their kids did, and I don’t think we did. I just thought we stopped. We thought we had it won. We’re young. We haven’t been in a lot of close games like that. It’s something we needed to go through, I guess. As a coach you don’t like it.

“When you have a chance to step on somebody’s throat, you do it. And we didn’t. When it does get a little tighter, you have to learn how to run your offense, get good shots, don’t force, play defense. We let them dribble right through us. Don’t commit silly fouls. There was a multitude of things we did wrong. Hopefully we can learn from all of those.”

SUMMARY

Jan 3, 2021

Goshen 57 Clinton-Massie 53

G^20^15^11^11^^57

CM^9^11^15^18^^53

(57) GOSHEN (fg-ft-tp) Hopper 6-4-19, Hamilton 0-0-0, Shafer 5-3-15, Noland 0-0-0, Smiley 2-0-4, Strunk 1-2-4, Dehler 0-0-0, Hoffrogge 1-0-2, Mathewson 0-0-0, Myers 1-0-3, Maco 1-0-2, Geary 4-0-8. Total 21-9-57. 3-point goals: 6 (Hoffer 3, Shafer 2, Myers). FTM-FTA 9-11, 82 percent.

(53) CLINTON-MASSIE (fg-ft-tp) Crowe 1-1-3, Eades 6-6-18, Crawford 4-1-9, Avery 4-0-9, Branham 3-2-9, Jamarillo 0-0-0, Roberts 1-1-3, Davis 1-0-2. Total 20-11-53. 3-point goals: 2 (Avery, Branham). FTM-FTA 11-19, 58 percent.

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By Shawn Robinson

WNJ Sports Writer

Shawn Robinson covers high school sports for the News Journal. Follow him on Twitter @twinzdad01.

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