GARRETT – Bounce back games are always important. For Garrett, getting back into gameplay just one night after a tough buzzer beating loss was crucial.
The Railroaders got back in front of their home crowd on Friday, picking up a 47-23 conference win over West Noble. In the process, they quieted a lot of the demons left from Thursday night’s upset loss at the buzzer to South Adams. That was important for Garrett on Senior Night, with just one senior actively in the lineup and a young core needing to be prepared for the postseason that kicks off with this Sunday’s Sectional draw.
“Its kind of a double edged sword because you are mad, you want to be mad but you can’t be and you get to get that taste out of your mouth,” Garrett coach Bob Lapadot said. “They bounced back, they really did. We turned it on in the fourth quarter [against South Adams], we just take the best. I said ride the momentum and we did so I was happy with their mental focus.”
Any momentum was going to be positive momentum for Garrett.
West Noble opened the game trying to pressure the Railroaders in the full court but Nataley Armstrong found swift success in dribbling through that press up the sideline. It allowed the Railroaders to move the ball around the perimeter, but save for Faith Owen’s initial triple, the jump shots weren’t falling early for Garrett. Owen changed that at the 2:30 mark of the opening quarter with her second triple, this one coming from the corner right in front of the West Noble bench.
Once Garrett has extended that lead to 10-2, the Chargers certainly needed a minute to talk it over.
Where Garrett wasn’t hitting early, Bailey Kelham wasn’t taking chances. The freshman was instead focused on getting to the rim until she opened the second quarter with a triple, flexing the diversity of her scoring options. Garrett was able to extend their lead to 15 points in the second but the Chargers started to do a much better job in their 1-2-2 press of forcing long passes and getting their fingers on the ball. Although Kelham hit another triple with 2:42 left, West Noble was able to answer on the other end then get a big stop in the paint with Taytlynn Forrer and Angela Caldwell playing stopper.
While Garrett headed into the break content with a 23-12 lead, the end of the second quarter felt kind of stagnant. Kelham and Owen provided almost all of the offense with 21 first half points. Yet, the lead and defensive effort was comforting for the Railroaders as they tried to up some offensive intensity.
That plan didn’t go as hoped early in the third. Sloppy offensive possessions, some of which ended without a shot, hampered Garrett. That and a timely early Jazmyn Smith three for West Noble helped the Chargers climb back into the game’s momentum. West Noble was within seven at the midway point of the third but struggling to find their own offensive footing despite plenty of looks at the rim. Garrett, who was struggling to find gaps in the West Noble 2-3 zone, didn’t score in the third quarter until 2:51 when Kelham took things again into her own hands, attacking the zone on the baseline to draw a foul and get to the free throw stripe to hit one of two. Kelham’s basket at 2:15 was the first Railroader field goal make of the second half.
“We kept back peddling into the trap instead of making the defense shift,” Lapadot said. “Something I have wanted to do is stick them in the high post against the zone so I said ‘heck with it’ we just put Bailey there and that opened things up. She got some layups and now they remember she’s there and now the holes start to open and we attacked.
“I thought it was good freshmen and sophomores could make that adjustment, something we have not run all year long and do it in a crunch time situation.”
So West Noble has their chances to claw all the way back in but just couldn’t make good. The 3-3 stalemate in the quarter was broke with 3.7 seconds left when Kelham drove to the basket and found Sadie Best for an easy lay in, and one free throw to boot.
West Noble, who got the first points of the second half, did not score after that three pointer until the 3:11 mark of the fourth with a pair of Lilly Mast free throws. All that did was allow Garrett to slowly slip further and further away. While the offense was still stagnant at times in the second half, Garrett’s defense held true. West Noble only converted three second half field goals, two of those coming late with the game out of hand.
“I was happy because we followed the scouting report. So much of our downfall has been not doing what the scouting report says,” Lapadot said. “It is hard to make adjustments when you are just not defending the way the plan says. They came out tonight and knew exactly what to do. Great help by Bailey Kelham and I think our bigs, [Abby] Weaver and [Sydney] West did a nice job helping trying to stop the shot and then get back to the roll.”
Garrett finished on a special note with lone playing senior Sydney West scoring in the final seconds of the game to get her senior night moment and an embrace from Lapadot when he subbed her out of the game.
Kelham finished with a game high 20 points; Owen added 11.
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