Turkey Run defense frustrates Rockville to capture Banks of Wabash girls hoops title

By Steve Fields
Tribune-Star Correspondent

Marshall, Ind. November 15, 2008 11:44 pm

— The Turkey Run Warriors executed a solid game plan to take away Rockville’s strength and ran away with a 47-20 victory Saturday night in the Banks of the Wabash championship for the second year in a row in high school girls basketball.
The Warriors (3-0) held Rockville’s Kieran McMullen scoreless and Beth Mahurin to five points and just three shots en route to their third win in as many starts.
“Our defense has been pretty consistent our first two games and we had a good game plan tonight. I thought we executed our defensive game plan about as good as we could. That’s a good [Rockville] ball team,” Turkey Run coach Sam Karr said.
Turkey Run pressured Rockville from baseline to baseline, guarding the Rox man-to-man, with some traps thrown in for good measure. Rockville turned the ball over 29 times.
“[Turkey Run has] got some amazing athletes and that’s the way they play, that’s their game is to make teams uncomfortable and that’s what they did tonight to us,” Rockville coach Jeff McCoy said.
Turkey Run’s balanced offense was led by Adrianne Francis with 13 points, the only Warrior in double figures. Francis also pulled down a team-high six rebounds and also came up with five steals.
Rockville was led by Hilary Vukovits with eight points.
Turkey Run took the lead for good less than four minutes into the contest on a Shelby Davies steal and layup. The Warriors led 13-6 going into the second period and extended the lead to 18-8 when Chelsea Newnum hit a three-pointer with 6:27 left in the period. The Warriors led 25-11 at halftime.
Turkey Run scored the first eight points of the second half, four on free throws. The Warriors led 34-15 going into the final period.
“What we tried to do is keep it out of [Rockville’s Lindsey] Greene’s hands and when the others got it, we tried to really pressure them. And we had somebody in front and back of [Rockville center] Beth [Mahurin] all night,” Karr said.
The Warriors’ defense covered for a 38 percent (13-34) shooting from the floor and forced the Rox into 28 percent shooting (9-32).
“Our offense has not been good the first three games. I’m not worried about that at this point because I know what kind of shooting team we can be,” Karr said.