“Coming over here any time and winning is a great win,” Panthers coach Tom Benjamin said. “We’ve got to go play in the second half and there are some dangerous opponents as always. To our credit we have found a way to be 7-0.”
Springboro (7-3 overall) jumped to a 6-0 lead and never trailed Beavercreek (8-4, 5-2). Bryn Smith, a sophomore guard, made four 3-pointers and led the Panthers with 17 points. Aniya Trent and Ava Wade added nine points apiece.
But the victory wasn’t always pretty, and Benjamin didn’t ignore it. As he said, “A great man once told me, ‘You cannot ignore in victory what you would not ignore in defeat.’”
After the 6-0 lead, the Panthers committed a rash of turnovers that couldn’t be ignored. But the Beavers, whose energy and quickness were a major factor in those turnovers, couldn’t capitalize and the Panthers slowly built a double-digit lead.
The Panthers’ offense found openings inside and outside, made seven 3-pointers and were fouled many times trying to score inside. But they made only 9 of 22 free throws, which is a recurring problem. They entered the game shooting 56.6%.
“I would like to see us be a little bit more disciplined, make a few more free throws, foul less and decrease our turnovers,” Benjamin said. “Our schedule is going to be such that we’re going to pay for some of those.”
While the Panthers continue to work those things out, they can keep winning with defense. They are long and athletic with 6-foot-2 Trent, 6-foot Martin, 5-11 Chloe Downing, 5-10 Wade and 5-9 Morgan Meek in the starting lineup and 5-11 Carly Turman coming off the bench.
“Their size and their length caused us on offense to hit a stopping point,” Beavers coach Aric Seilhamer said. “And Springboro does a good job of not overextending when they don’t need to.”
Seilhamer’s hope was that his team would make more than one 3-pointer, pull the defense out and open up driving lanes for his quicker guards like Lilli Leopard and Charlotte Pauling, who average a combined 23 points. Leopard was held to one point and Pauling scored six.
“Throughout the season the girls confidence has grown,” Seilhamer said. “They were ready and excited for the game. To their credit, Springboro has a very good young team, they have some elite players and they’re very well coached.”
The two teams will meet again soon on Jan. 14 in the Flyin’ To The Hoop event at Trent Arena in Kettering. Something the Beavers will be working on is converting turnovers into more points.
“I need to do a better job coaching for us to execute in transition to be able to hurt them on those turnovers,” Seilhamer said. “We forced 18 to 20 of them and only got 28 points.”
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