Staff Writer
Walkersville High School girls basketball coach Mike Mathis entered Tuesday’s game with Linganore with a simple, yet complicated, strategy -- keep the ball from Lancers guard Meghan Martin.
It’s simple in that the game plan focused on a single player but complicated in that Martin is the primary ball-handler for Linganore and also one of Frederick County’s top scorers -- she is averaging nearly 25 points per game, including a 40-point effort against Anne Arundel County’s South River on Jan. 28.
Through a pair of rotating defenders as well as an aggressive fullcourt press that looked to trap Martin whenever possible, the Lions slowed the prolific senior en route to a 58-46 victory.
Martin did manage 17 points for the game but she was limited to one in the second quarter as Walkersville (13-5) turned an early 18-11 deficit into a 28-20 halftime advantage. She was limited to just three made free throws in the final eight minutes as well, allowing the Lions to hold on to an eight points or more lead in the fourth quarter.
“She’s a very good player; we kind of [wanted to] limit her touches and I thought we did a good job of that tonight,” Mathis said. “What we were telling our girls, if she gives it up, don’t let her get it back. We were rotating Danielle Medovich and Chaslyn Derexson on her and they did a real good job and I thought by the end of the night, she looked like she was tired.”
And for good reason as multiple defenders swarmed around Martin as she tried to weave her way up the court, the result was a slew of turnovers and offensive dry spells for the Lancers (9-11) during stretches of the second and third quarters.
Also, with the defense concentrated on Martin, she was forced to kick the ball ahead to teammates, thus taking her out of the offensive mix early in possessions. Valerie Taylor also helped erase in penetration by the Lancers, recording five of her team’s six blocked shots.
“That was very important because, I’m sure you guys know, she scored 40 points a couple weeks ago and we knew we had to stop her to win the game,” said Medovich, who scored all 11 of her points in the second half. “She’s a very good player.”
Besides the turnovers and slowing of Martin, Linganore was plagued by poor free throw shooting throughout the game; the Lancers converted 20 of 41 free throws, including 9 for 17 in the fourth quarter as both teams quickly reached the double bonus limit in the second half.
“I don’t know how many foul shots we missed, but that killed us,” Lancers coach Brian Matthews said. “We work on it all the time and we come in here and can’t make it. I think they got the boards on us too.”
Besides Medovich, the Lions received 11 points from Tyra Hughes and nine from Maia Harper as eight different players contributed three or more points to give Walkersville a two-game sweep of Linganore this season.
jpeters@gazette.net
Walkersville 58, Linganore 46
Linganore (9-11) 11 9 11 15 46
Walkersville (13-5) 11 17 17 13 58
Linganore -- Meghan Martin 17, Erica Rothe 6, Kelsey Probeyahn 1, Alexandra Bullard 6, Gabrielle Anwar 3, Madison Ambush 1, Kelli Griffith 3, Jessica Burke 9.
Walkersville -- Danielle Medovich 11, Haley Bauer 3, Maia Harper 9, Sarah Dixon 8, Tyra Hughes 11, Bri Nolen 2, Chaslyn Derexson 6, Christine Peifer 8.