Skyhawks’ 1-2 punch too much for Comets
By Suzanne Werre, BHG News Service
Underwood Head Coach Toni Cottingham isn’t dwelling on the fact that the Comets didn’t quite attain their goal of making it to the state tournament this coming weekend. After falling in semifinal action to Shiloh 61-30 last Tuesday night, which knocked the Comets out of state tournament contention, Cottingham already knows what she’s going to be looking for from her Comet team next season. “We’re doing everything this off season to copy what Shiloh did to us on defense,” said Cottingham. It was Shiloh’s swarming defense that ultimately led to the Comets’ demise in Tuesday’s semifinal game at Mandan, as the Skyhawks set trap after trap, double and triple-teaming Comets until they were frustrated, committing a total of 30 turnovers for the game. “We knew we were going to get full-court, man-to-man, we knew we were going to have a lot of pressure put on us,” said Cottingham, and that’s exactly what they got. Things were actually going pretty well for the Comets early in the game as they kept pace with the Skylawks until Shiloh’s Paige Emmel kicked it up offensively, knocking down a pair of deep three-pointers, which forced the Comets to pull their defense out on her, which in turn opened up the inside for Shiloh’s Beth Muggerud, who finished the game with 17 points. Emmel scored 14 points for the game.
