CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Tuesday marked the third game in just five days for Rossview girls basketball when they traveled to take on Northeast in a district contest.
The Lady Hawks rebounded in a big way after suffering a loss to Northwest a day prior, defeating the Lady Eagles 56-41.
“I mean it has to take a toll on you,” said Rossview girls basketball coach Justin Woods on his team’s recent schedule. “When you put that many miles on your legs in that short of time frame, it’s got to have some kind of effect. I thought we were able to shake it off and do what we needed to do.”
After a rather sluggish start to begin the game, the Lady Hawks scored 22 points in the second quarter alone to take a commanding 33-17 lead into the break.
“I feel like every time we come over here to play we start slow,” Woods said. “I don’t know what it is, but we seem to do that. I thought once we kind of got our legs under us that we played pretty well in the second and the third.”
Lady Eagle junior Cierra Bowser was inactive for a second straight game due to an ankle injury. Northeast girls basketball coach Tracie Mason-Blair discussed what her team misses the most without the starting point guard’s presence on the floor.
“Her ankle is still a little tender and right now we’re not sure when she’ll be back,” Mason-Blair said. “She’s one of our best ball handlers and penetrators. We do have other players on our team that can score. They just have to learn to step up when she’s not in the game.”
Key players
Rossview was able to seize control of the game by cashing in on numerous second and third-chance opportunities allowed by Northeast.
“I thought Torri James came off the bench and gave us a spark on the boards,” Woods said. “She’s really long and athletic and looked like she was jumping off a trampoline there at times. That was good to see from her. That’s the thing that we’ve been talking about for our bench players is to change the game with your energy and I thought she really did that tonight.”
Mason-Blair was proud of the fight her team showed, but agreed that her players’ work on the glass was subpar at best.
“If you give a team second and third shots, they’re eventually going to make some of them,” Mason-Blair said. “They’re going to the boards hard and you have to box out no matter who you’re playing. I thought we played pretty good for the most part and then got a little frustrated with ourselves and then it was kind of downhill from there.”
Overall, the season has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for the Lady Eagles. Northeast has not been able to string together back-to-back wins to this point, but has also yet to lose consecutive games either.
“We were just talking about that tonight after the game,” Mason-Blair said. “We’re just not consistent. It’s there some nights and some nights it’s not. We’re just up and down right now.”
Rossview’s Chelsea Williams led all scorers with 18 points followed by Sydney-James Desroches with 12 points.
Adryanna Smith recorded 13 points while Krysonie Mitchell added 12 points for the Lady Eagles.
What’s next
Northeast welcomes in Franklin Thursday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in a non-district matchup.
“I told my girls from day one we respect everybody, but we fear no one,” Mason-Blair said of the matchup. “On any given night, anybody can beat anybody. You just have to bring your game and whoever does that the best is going to come out on top.”
Rossview will host Kenwood Friday, Jan. 29 at 6:30 p.m. before its rematch with Northwest on Tuesday.
“I think last night we saw that when you play good teams they kind of expose your weaknesses,” Woods said. “We didn’t take care of the ball down the stretch and we didn’t execute down the stretch. Those are things that we have to get better at.”