Things weren’t easy for the South Adams Starfires Tuesday night at South Side.
Facing an opponent that was hungry for a win and playing on the road far away from home, the South Adams Starfires did not look up to the task of handling the pressure of coach Juanita Goodwell’s team, falling behind further and further as halftime approached.
Coach Brett Freeman urged his team to slow things down and that the halftime deficit of eight points was not too much to overcome.
The Starfires did the rest, fighting back for a rather impressive 56-55 victory that extended the Archers’ miserable start to the season, pushing their record to 0-11, while South Adams went to 4-5 with their third win in the last four games.
“Tonight was a big challenge for us on the road,” said Freeman. “We were seeing pressure that we hadn’t seen yet this season. It really sped us up in the first half. We were rushing ourselves with the ball and making poor decisions and they were able to capitalize on our miscues.”
Ana Lehman led the Stars with 21 points, knocking down two threes and going to the line 11 times.
Bri’Tanya Diedrich Williams had 25 for the Archers, while Bry’Lee Diedrich Williams added 15.
“The quickness of their 2 guards gave us fits all night, they were hard to contain at times,” added Freeman.
South Adams doubled their point total from the first half and more, just in the third quarter.
“We did a much better job handling their pressure in the second half,” said Freeman. “That allowed for us to get out and run a little more and get some good looks at the basket. It came down right to the end where they got multiple looks at the basket before we got a foul call on them that basically ended the game.”
Definitely some things we can take from this game and get better at, but great to come home with a road win.
The Stars have to be ready and turn around quickly and face another road opponent, Eastbrook, on Wednesday.
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