Fremont-Mills cracks under Essex pressure defense

A 14-3 Essex first quarter lead was too big a hole for the Fremont-Mills girls to dig out of.
The Knights struggled against the Trojans’ full-court pressure all night and couldn’t rally late despite a valiant comeback effort that cut the lead to three points in the third quarter of a 38-26 loss last Tuesday in Corner Conference girls basketball.

“The best part of Essex’s game is their transition,” said Fremont-Mills coach Steve Raymond after the game. “They have some great athletes and they’re well coached. They were focused and ready to play from the tip. I felt our girls were ready too, they just made a few more plays and we had some bounces that didn’t go our way.”

The Trojans (9-0 overall, 9-0 in the conference) in the conference, who downed the Knights 51-38 in their previous meeting, opened the game in their 1-2-2 trapping press, forced three turnovers on F-M’s first three possessions – seven in all in the opening frame overall – to build a 14-3 lead after a quarter.

The Knights offensive struggles continued into the second quarter as they finished the opening half trailing 20-8.

Their eight points were a halftime low this season.

But in the third, the Knights would heat up. An 8-2 run trimmed the lead to 22-16 with 4:04 to go and a three pointer by Jenna Nelson sliced it to 22-19 with 2:43 to go in the third quarter.

The three-point deficit, however, would be as close at the Knights would get. Essex responded with a 5-0 run to close the third frame and then opened the fourth on a 9-4 run to push their lead to 36-23 with 3:40 to go in the game.
“The girls, after that run, came off the court kind of thinking we’re not going to do this and I told them to relax and work on offense and someone will step up and they did,” said Essex coach Jay Soderberg.

The Knights first quarter offensive struggles visited them again in the fourth. They turned the ball over eight times in the frame and missed on eight of their 10 field goal attempts.

Raymond commended his girls and their never quit attitude.

“It is so much fun coaching this girl of groups just for the simple fact they have a never die attitude,” Raymond said. “They’re a great group to coach and they do everything ask in executing the game plan. All I wanted from them tonight was to give 100 percent effort on every possession and they did that. It was tough loss but  we have some areas we know we can improve and we hope to see them again.”

Daiton Martin led the Trojans with a game-high 20 points.

Haylee Chamber’s 11 points led the Knights. Nelson pitched in eight.
 

The Opinion-Tribune

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