Panthers claw way past Tigers
BLOOMSBURG — Both Bloomsburg girls basketball coach John Wittman and Southern Columbia coach Bill Callahan never wavered from letting the players learn for themselves in PHAC action.
The contest saw the Tigers take command early, but the Panthers storming back to win, 65-48.
The Panthers began the comeback late in the second quarter, going on an 8-2 run before blowing the lid off the game with a 16-0 run to start the second half. Coincidentally, it all started when Wittman decided to change the defensive scheme.
“We switched up our defense because I didn’t think our man-to-man defense early on was very good,” he said. “I thought we were not communicating well at all. When we switched up our defense, it allowed us to get a little bit of a run. When we went back to our man-to-man defense, it was so much better because they were energized and communicating a lot better.”
With the Tigers leading by four, Callahan thought he had a good game on his hands, but the best Panthers’ run was behind them.
Far from it.
“They got really, really physical pushing us around and we didn’t respond. That’s the bottom line,” Callahan said. “You have to give them credit. ... The game got really, really physical as they took it to another level.”
It was common to see any combination of two Bloomsburg players close in on Southern’s ball carrier. It was especially true of Kelsey Widom, Madeline Evans and Brynn Zentner, who made life under the hoop tough for the Tigers as the game progressed.
The Panthers, called for traveling four times in the first half, cleaned up their transition game as well, turning steals into easy points.
They also took the lanes away from the Tigers, allowing just nine points in the third frame. Six of those came off 3-pointers from Grace Callahan and Faith Callahan.
Wittman wasn’t surprised to see the game get flipped on its head, even when things seemingly couldn’t get worse for Bloomsburg. In fact, he saw enough positive approaches from the Panthers that he didn’t bother to call a timeout with the Tigers taking control of the ball and game early.
“I didn’t think they had to hear it from me. I think they were experiencing some jitters,” Wittman said. “They were doing a lot of the little things right but needed to pick up the effort defensively. I was expecting the ball to start falling for us at any moment.”
It did, especially for Evans. She finished with a game-high 26 points — 11 of them scored in the second quarter and all but two coming after the first quarter.
Widom finished with 20, going 8-for-10 at the line while Zenter scored nine.
The Tigers also had two girls — Ava Novak and Alli Griscavage — finish with double-digit performances. It left Bill Callahan optimistic about what’s in store.
“I like having two or three girls finish in double figures,” Callahan said. “I thought we played alright, but we have to learn that when playing great teams, it’s a 32-minute fight.
“When our team is unselfish with the ball, we’re really nice to look at. We make passes, we cut and we do a great job,” Bill Callahan said. “We’re young and we’ll be fine.
Novak finished with a team-high 14 points while Griscavage scored 11.
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