Lady Cougars Hold Off Fort Wayne CanterburyWINONA LAKE – Lakeland Christian Academy held visiting Fort Wayne Canterbury without a made shot from the floor for more for the first nine minutes of their girls basketball game.
The Cavaliers trailed by as many as 16 points late in the first half before cutting the lead to five late in the third quarter, making the home team sweat out a 41-28 win Tuesday night.
The Cougars’ defensive pressure, combined with poor ball handling by Canterbury, led to nine turnovers in the first quarter alone, and 14 in the first half, while LCA built its lead. A three-pointed from Natalie Norris in the opening minute of the second period gave the Cougars a 15-2 lead before Canterbury finally got its first bucket; a jump shot by Georgia Gray.
But after leading 22-8 at halftime, Canterbury came out the aggressor in the third period, doubling the Cougars point output 14-7 in the stanza. A Norris jumper expanded the lead to seven at the end of the quarter, after seeing the lead fall to five.
“Defensively, we really started aggressive in the first half, and coming out of halftime we back off the defensive pressure,” said Cougar head coach Allie Kauffman. “That really caused a lack of energy on both sides of the floor; we didn’t have our legs under our shots in the third quarter, and they got some momentum.”
The coach said the key to keep the lead was maintaining poise when things got tough.
“They did a good job of staying relaxed down the stretch. some of our shots weren’t falling and Canterbury hit some big shots that got them back into the game,” she said. “But our girls did a good job of staying relaxed and, down the stretch, hitting the shots we needed to.”
Senior Tori Calizo, the leading scorer for LCA, helped her team build the big lead with 10 first-half points, then grabbing four key rebounds late. She finished with a double-double; 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“She brings it on both ends of the floor. She led us not only in points, but defensively grabbed a bunch of rebounds for us. Leadership-wise, she’s the one the girls really look to, and for us, she’s priceless out there.”
Norris added a double-double of her own, with 13 points and matching Calizo’s 11 boards. Jessi Calizo, Tori’s sophomore sister, and freshman Finley Hobbs had six points each to round out the Cougar scoring.
Now 9-10, LCA is off for a week before traveling to Granger Christian on Tuesday.
