Lady Chiefs pick up second win

A pair of buckets by sophomore Ashton Smith (20) allowed the Lady Chiefs to pull away from Northwest during the third period.

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The Lady Chiefs shot a season-high 40.5 percent from the field and reduced their turnovers to an acceptable level Saturday to beat Northwest of Hughesville, 36-24, in the W-K Chevrolet-Buick Holiday Shoot-out at State Fair Community College in Sedalia.

"It's just confidence and youth," Santa Fe head coach Tina Burton explained of an offense which had averaged only 26.0 points per game going into the contest. "If they'd realize their strength, they could do it."

The Lady Chiefs' strength, at least initially, was feeding the post: 6-foot-4 sophomore Holly Schmidt. She scored 12 first-half points, four on passes from sophomore Ashton Smith, to propel Santa Fe to a 20-12 lead. By converting baskets, the Lady Chiefs were able to apply their full-court press on defense, forcing 11 Northwest turnovers -- four in a row late in the first quarter.

"We haven't worked on our press much, worried about depth," noted Burton, who has only eight players at her disposal. "We wanted to make sure we were woke up and ready to play" the morning game, "get that aggressiveness from the get-go."

A free throw and jumper from the elbow by senior Sherry Patton pulled the Lady Mustangs within five points at halftime. Senior Kayla Koch and freshman Ashton Miller scored early in the third period to close the margin to one, but Northwest managed only five more points the rest of the game -- going over eight minutes without scoring against a match-up zone.

"We played off of the one player we thought couldn't beat us," Burton said. "They didn't run a motion offense against it and stood around a lot, which helped us."

Smith sank back-to-back baseline jumpers during the middle of the frame to extend the gap to six points. Freebies by Schmidt and Smith and sophomore Paula Tieman's 17-footer added to the lead.

When sophomore Michelle Aversman scored following a Smith steal with 3:44 remaining in the game, Santa Fe was comfortably ahead, 32-21, and coasted home.

Koch and Miller each had six points for the Lady Mustangs (2-6), making only 18.2 percent of their field goals during the second half.

Schmidt finished with 14 points and seven blocked shots while Aversman and Smith combined for 14 points, each collecting eight rebounds and four steals, to pace the Lady Chiefs (2-4) -- winning for the second time in three days.

"We have the potential there," Burton observed. "You're going to see a lot more improvement from a young squad than an older one."