After a sluggish start and getting down 9 midway in the 2nd quarter, 23 - 14, the girls settled down and outscored them the 41 - 18 to win by 14.
Upper Merion started strong and made some shots. Part of that was nerves on our part, we could not hold on to the ball and did not shoot well. In the 2nd quarter we saw some adjustments that we thought would be effective and we decided to hold off making the adjustments until the 2nd half so that they would not have the halftime to adjust to.
At the half, down by two, our girls were not panicked and in the 3rd quarter they made the adjustments. In the seconds half, Instead of settling for settling for threes against their zone, we were a little more patient and worked the ball inside and were able to get to the foul line and get some of their girls in trouble. The girls also did a nice job with the zone press. We took them out of their rhythm on offense and we held them to 13 second half points.
For us, Briana had a strong game both offensively and defensively. She scored 25 points and a ton of rebounds and steals. Dani Brusha scored 13 and Sydney Santora scored 10, including two big threes in the third quarter, including one that gave us a lead that we would not give up.
Lastly, Amelia Brown was out with and injury and Dani Brusha fouled out. We finished the game with four freshman and a sophomore on the court down the stretch and this type of experience will be invaluable to them as they continue to grow as varsity players.
Even though we were a bit sloppier than we would have liked, it was good for the girls to get some playoff experience before we play WC Rustin Tuesday night.