Like so many games before, the Republic Lady Tigers ratcheted up the defensive pressure when they needed it and pulled away from Rogersville their district semifinal game, 64–35. Brooke Stanfield had 15 points and Tori Taylor had 14. Micah Mansker and Jordan Kabetske were also in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively.
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Despite being heavy underdogs, Rogersville stayed close early. They even took briefly at 17–16 in the second quarter, before Republic used a run to take the lead into the halftime break.
“We were just really sluggish at the beginning,” says coach Kris Flood. “I was worried about that, being off eight days — the fact that we were out of school, it’s been hard to stay consistent.”
Flood says at halftime, he talked to his team about using full-court pressure to hang onto the intensity it showed to close the 2nd quarter.
“We picked it up defensively and had them a little rattled. We forced some turnovers and got some easy buckets, and that help us get going there,” says Flood. “We were going to continue to try to use our press to control the tempo and make them throw up quicker shots than normal.”
The inside game started clicking offensively in the 2nd half, with Stanfield and Taylor combining for 18 points after halftime.
“We went back to our original offense there with Brooke and Tori working together as a tandem on the inside,” says Flood, “and that eventually opened some stuff on the perimeter.”
The Lady Tigers stretched their lead to 43–31 after three quarters, and pulled away from there. Rogersville scored only four points in the final quarter, as they were forced to rush their shots in an effort to close the gap.
Republic improves to 21-5 this season. Rogersville ends its season at 10-16.
The Lady Tigers move into the district championship game Friday night against West Plains. The Lady Zizzers pulled away from Aurora after trailing at halftime, for a 20-point win in the other semifinal.
I’ll have live play-by-play of the championship game at Republic Tiger Sports. (I’ll also have live coverage of the boys district semifinal, when Republic meets Aurora Thursday at 6 p.m.)