Lafayette win with defense
Defense came to Lafayette’s rescue on a night when its offense never completely got into a flow.
The Lancers threw several different zone defenses at Parkway North and turned the Vikings away with a 36-28 girls basketball victory Wednesday at Lafayette.
Lafayette responded every time Parkway North seemed to figure things out, and the Lancers kept regaining the momentum by forcing turnovers and controlling the pace of the game.
“Being that we’re very young and small, we know to be successful we’re going to have to get some transition points with our defense,” Lafayette coach Jennifer Porter said. “We ran a couple different zone defenses to try to switch it up and create some turnovers.”
When Parkway North (2-2) made its halftime adjustments and started working the ball to the post, the Vikings started to swing the momentum and took a brief 20-19 lead midway through the third period.
Lafayette (3-1) responded by getting tough on defense once again and holding Parkway North scoreless for nearly six minutes.
“We played more like a match-up zone because we’ve had troubles rebounding in the past, and so we match-up and when the shot goes up, box out,” said Lafayette sophomore Jordynn Martin, who had a game-high 16 points.
The Vikings could not get into any sort of offense to begin the game, struggling just to get off a shot at times. The Vikings then calmed down and scored the first eight points of the game.
Lafayette meanwhile started 0 for 9 from the field and didn’t score until Ashley Hipp converted a free throw to make it 8-1 with 1:52 left in the first period.
Once Lafayette broke through on the scoreboard, the Lancers got into an offensive rhythm. Martin connected from the lane to continue an 11-0 run as the Lancers took an 11-8 lead midway through the second quarter.
“It always helps when you score the first point because you get fired up, and you get on a roll from there,” Martin said.
The Lafayette defense again was in control, holding the Vikings to one field goal in the second quarter and helping the Lancers take an 18-12 advantage into halftime.
“Initially we didn’t get to the spots we needed to get to, and we only had a couple of girls that were looking to be aggressive and make them pay for that trapping zone,” Parkway North coach Will Young said.
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