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EDWARDSVILLE – Metro East Lutheran's girls basketball team got seven points each from Sami Kasting and Ellen Schulte Monday night, but a slow start led to a Nokomis win over the Knights by a 56-38 count at Hooks Gym; the Knights fell to 2-3 on the season, while the Redskins improved to 4-4.
The Knights did make a run at the Redskins in the second quarter, managing to cut a 19-6 deficit at quarter time to 34-22 at the half.
“There was just a lack of physicality from the beginning,” said Knight coach Rob Stock. “They came in and kind of imposed their will on us; we talked about that after the game. We have to change our mentality in the way we play or we're going to have that struggle against teams like that continuing.
“It has to be a choice the girls make as we move forward.”
Destiny Williams and Skye Mayberry each had five points for the Knights on the evening; Taylor Lohman led the Redskins with 18 points, with McKenna Sanders adding 12 and Alyssa Huber nine.
The Knights didn't shoot that well through the game. “I think lot of them were pressing tonight,” Stock said. “I think when we got open looks, they were rushed, and not because of anything the defense was doing because we were off tonight and we just didn't shoot the ball well tonight.”
The Knights’ second-quarter run at Nokomis was about as close as MEL could come. “We'd do some good things, but then we'd turn around and have people out of position,” Stock said. “We're not doing the things we need to do defensively that got us to 10; if you're not doing your job, it's going to be tough as a team to shut down the other team.
“People are getting out of position defensively and that's just allows for layups.”
Nokomis took advantage of their size as well and managed to grab rebounds when they needed them. “We talked about that after the game,” Stock said. “We have to decide if we're going to start to play a little bit more physical; you've got to box out, you've got to rebound. You can't keep giving up that many rebounds to the other team.
“We just got outworked.”
Next up for the Knights is a 7:30 p.m. Thursday contest at Waterloo Gibault, followed by a 7:30 p.m. Friday home game against Bunker Hill and a 7:30 p.m. Dec. 11 visit from Marissa.
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