Cougars get even

February 05, 2003|by CURT HORNBECKER / Staff Correspondent

WILLIAMSPORT - To say that Catoctin's girls basketball team had revenge on its mind would be a gross understatement.

After losing to Williamsport on their home floor earlier in the season, the Cougars wanted badly to win Tuesday's rematch.

And it showed, as Catoctin's tenacious pressure defense sparked a 60-30 drubbing of the Wildcats in a Monocacy Valley Athletic League contest.

"(The loss at Catoctin) just really fired us up," said Catoctin's leading scorer, Emily Balogh, who finished with 20 points on 9 of 12 shooting. "We've been waiting for this game."

As it turned out, 14 first-quarter Williamsport turnovers and eight points from Balogh nearly settled things after just eight minutes, as Catoctin surged to a 16-5 lead.

"If we had to, we would have pressed all night," Cougars coach Tracy Franklin said. "We wanted to press them right away."

While the Wildcats' turnovers decreased in the second period, their offensive woes didn't end. Williamsport hit just 3 of 12 field goal attempts in the quarter and trailed 29-13 at the intermission.

Although illness and injury forced Williamsport to utilize its bench more than usual, Wildcats coach Kevin Murphy didn't offer that as an excuse.

"Those illnesses didn't cause us the throw the ball all over the gym," Murphy said. "They got after us pretty good."

Even when Williamsport managed to break the pressure, it was unable to take advantage, hitting just 9 of 31 field goals in the game.

In the fourth period, the Wildcats scored all eight of their points from the free throw line.

"We didn't have any offense," Murphy said. "(The Cougars) were going to kick our butts no matter who we had on the floor. They outhustled us and played better than we did."

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