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PrintThe Hickman girls’ basketball team’s defensive philosophy is simple: pressure, trap, steal.
“We’re going to get after you,” coach Curt Riley said during the preseason. “You know, if you can handle it, it’s going to be a pretty good ballgame. If you can’t, it’s not going to be a pretty good game.”
But for the first quarter of Saturday’s 48-31 victory against Parkway South in the Columbia College High School Shootout, the Kewpies’ full-court press was self-destructive. Senior center Callie Johnson picked up three quick fouls, and the Patriots picked up several easy layups by lobbing passes over the Kewpies’ press.
In the second quarter, Hickman (4-1) switched to a half-court trap, but the Kewpies were still surrendering easy baskets.
“They were running all over us the first half,” Riley said. “We gave up some baskets we shouldn’t have given up.”
So Riley scrapped his defensive philosophy at the half. By abandoning the pressure defense, the Kewpies limited the Patriots to six points in the third quarter.
“We started getting back more on defense,” said Johnson, who scored 10 points in the third quarter. Johnson and senior forward Lauren Nolke led the Kewpies with 12 points each.
The defensive adjustment also sparked an offense that scored only 18 first-half points. At the start of the third quarter, junior guard Ciara Tatum stole the ball at the top of the key, raced up the court, shook her defender by crossing the ball behind her back and went in for a layup.
“She made a move as pretty as I’ve ever seen,” Riley said.
Riley said he still expects to press opponents often this year. He knows his team has the quickness and depth to play pressure defense. He also knows most of the Kewpies’ games won’t be played on college courts, which are larger than high school courts.
“(The press) wasn’t working as well as we wanted it to, and on a floor like this, you’ve got so much room to maneuver,” Riley said. “It’s a lot harder to attack and push them into a trap, so we backed it off and did a lot better job in the second half, especially in our half-court defense.”
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