Rams fall 56-48 at Nebraska Prep Classic


Danika Arnold surveys the defense in Glenwood’s loss to North Bend Central at the Nebraska Prep Classic Saturday.

OMAHA - North Bend Central has won the last three Nebraska Class C-1 state championships.

And the Tigers showed why on Saturday at the Nebraska Prep Classic, harassing and hounding a Glenwood team with its suffocating man-to-man defense in a 56-48 victory Saturday afternoon at D.J. Sokol Arena.

The Rams’ 48 points were their second lowest output of the season. Jenna Hopp was a bright spot for Glenwood on an otherwise tepid offensive performance. The senior guard poured in 36 points and became the Rams’ all-time career leading scorer in the process with 1,585 points.

“They did a good job against us,” said Glenwood coach Bryan Rasmussen. “Jenna obviously had a good night. But we haven’t seen a lot of man-to-man this year and it’s not something we’re real comfortable with.”

Rasmussen had a good scout of the Tigers (15-1) and knew their defensive bread and butter was straight man-to-man.

“It something we anticipated they’d do so we’d been prepping for it for a couple days,” he said. “But man-to-man offense isn’t something that we’ve really run this year. I thought we did OK against it, we just didn’t move enough without the ball enough. We got too stagnant against a tough, tight, in your face, man-to-man defense.”

The Tigers led 17-10 after a quarter – Hopp scored all 10 first quarter points for the Rams – and the used a 14-2 run to open the second quarter to take a commanding 35-17 lead into halftime.

The lead would grow to as many as 20 in the second half before the Rams would rally. They would keep the lead within 10 points for much of the final quarter and a half and then 56-48 on Hopp’s putback with :59 to go in the game but could get no closer.

The Tigers dominated the points in the paint, thanks to their transition game and ability to get offensive rebounds. But the Rams did get better as the game went along.

“Especially in the first half, we weren’t getting back, or they were getting second chance buckets and they really killed us and got us in too big of hole,” Rasmussen said. In the second half, I thought we did a better job with our halfcourt defense and stopping some of their easy transition buckets.”

The Tigers didn’t deploy any junk defenses to slow Hopp and the Rams and played straight up man-to-man.

“That’s probably why we don’t see a lot of man-to-man because she might put up 36 every night. They were pretty tough on her. She had to work for a lot of those. It’s not like those 36 came easy. She had a lot of and-1’s and she worked hard for all 36.”

Lindsey Emanuel led North Bend with 21 points.

Glenwood 60,
Red Oak 37

Glenwood blew open a three-point first quarter lead with a 30-9 second quarter run to pull away from Red Oak in a 60-37 victory in Hawkeye 10 Conference girls basketball Thursday.

Jenna Hopp led the Rams with 29 points. Kate Hughes added 13 points.

Lainey DeVries and Jaydin Lindsay paced Red Oak with 10 points each.

 

The Opinion-Tribune

116 S Walnut St Glenwood, IA 51534-1665
P.O. Box 377, Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-527-3191
Phone: 712-623-2566
Fax: 712-527-3193

Comment Here