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Heading into Tuesday night’s game having already eclipsed last season’s win total, the Manchester girls basketball team looked to defend its home court against Three Rivers Conference foe Peru. The game was mostly controlled by the Lady Tigers as the Lady Squires’ conference woes continued in a 52-44 loss.
Peru took the lead on its first possession of the night and was able to stay there for a majority of the first quarter. Defensively, the Lady Tigers were making things incredibly difficult for the home side. Manchester was only able to manage four points over the first four minutes, as Peru was locking down the basket.
Following their hot start, the Lady Tigers cooled off as the opening period wore on. After three makes on the team’s first five possessions, the visitors would go nearly three minutes before getting another shot to fall. The Lady Squires took full advantage of this, taking their first lead of the game on a layup by Emma Walker in the final minute.
After ending the first quarter on a 10-3 run, Manchester led by five heading into the second. The advantage got up to seven before a 8-1 run by Peru ended what was another multi-minute drought for the visitors and tied things up in a flash.
The Lady Tigers continued surging from there, jumping back in front not long afterwards to give the game its second lead change of the evening. The tables had turned once again, as after a run of success for the Lady Squires, nothing was going their way.
The two sides spent a good chunk of the final three minutes before halftime knotted up at 20. Both defenses were playing well, forcing difficult shots and turnovers. Each team was also doing a great job on the offensive glass, but neither was able to consistently convert on those extra opportunities. At the break, it was Peru that held a three-point lead.
Senior Hadley West of Mancheseter takes a shot from the corner during Tuesday night's home game against Peru...Nieter
The Lady Tigers began the second half on fire, allowing the visitors to extend their lead all the way to nine. Similar to the opening minutes of the game, Peru was operating incredibly efficiently. Manchester was struggling to keep up, as the offense still had not gotten into much of a rhythm at this point in the game.
As the third quarter continued, the lead kept on growing for the visitors. Around the midway point, they went up by double digits and were only getting better. Trailing by as many as 14, the Lady Squires had multiple opportunities in the final minutes of the third to get back within single digits and striking distance. Most of the time though, the team came away with empty possessions. With eight minutes to go, Manchester had plenty of work to do down eleven.
A putback by Elin Betten a minute into the fourth quarter finally made it a single-digit game again. After a few more stops and a triple by Ava Sautter, suddenly the Lady Squires were in business. The home side’s intensity on defense had ramped up tremendously, giving Manchester a chance to work its way back into things.
With the lead trimmed down to just six, Peru was able to come up with a massive answer. The visitors scored the next seven points to go back up by 13 with time starting to become a serious factor. With less than three minutes to go in the game, the deficit was eleven once more, as if the Lady Squire run at the beginning of the period hadn’t happened.
By the time it was a single-digit game again, only a minute remained in the contest. While Manchester had battled valiantly, it appeared as if it would be too little, too late. With 15 seconds left, a three by Olivia Stevens brought the team within seven, but that would be as close as things got.
Manchester (10-7, 2-5 TRC) is at home against Wabash on Saturday.
