SHELBYVILLE — Edinburgh played zone defense early in Friday’s girls basketball contest at Shelbyville. It worked as it kept them within 27-26 at halftime.
The Golden Bears, though, found a way to combat the zone defense by shooting perimeter shots. The Lancers defense did not have an answer for Morgan Parker, who hit four 3-pointers early in the third quarter that sparked an 18-2 run to help Shelbyville pull away for a 68-46 win.
Parker finished with a game-high 26 points, nailing seven 3 pointers for the game.
“We stayed in the zone a little bit too long because they were making their shots from the outside, especially (Parker),” Edinburgh coach Amy Macy said of the third quarter. “We should have come out of it quicker, but we had some foul trouble with some players. I just didn’t have confidence in our man-to-man defense, so that was my fault.
”Aside from that, we played with them with our intensity,” she said. “We made a couple bad passes here and there but overall, we did a good job in three of the four quarters.”
With the zone defense working for the Lancers (1-2) early on and forcing the Golden Bears (1-0) into a couple of turnovers, Edinburgh was able to jump out to a 5-0 lead. Parker, who missed her first three attempts from behind the arc, found her rhythm and buried consecutive 3- pointers to help give Shelbyville a 13-8 lead after one quarter.
With a lot of starters in foul trouble for the Lancers, Macy turned to her bench in the second quarter. Sidney Beier and Makenzie Hill helped them stay in the game by nailing three combined 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer to stay within 27-26.
“We did what we do best, and that is to take care of the ball and play hard-nosed defense,” Macy said. “We are still working on keeping the offense in reversing the ball and looking for things to come to us instead of trying to force it.”
Bri Howard led Edinburgh with 21 points. Hill finished with six points, and Beier added five.
With the Golden Bears turning up the defense in the second half, the Lancers were unable to come up baskets until late in the fourth quarter.
“We had the inside but their defense played hard against our guards that we did not take advantage of the inside play,” Macy said.
