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| Lady Panthers fall to more athletic Blazers |
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| Sports | |||
| Written by Andy Brown | |||
| Wednesday, 23 December 2009 09:00 | |||
GARDNER — For awhile, it really didn’t look too bad for the Paola girls’ basketball team.  The Panthers were down just seven points to Frontier League favorite Gardner-Edgerton at the end of the first quarter, but as the night wore on, it become evident Paola was going to need more offense — it never came. “I thought we came out early and played hard with a nice level of confidence,” Paola coach Stuart Ross said. “However, as their athleticism wore on us, I think our kids started to lose confidence and then started to execute poorly.” Paola never scored more than six points in a quarter during Thursday’s 51-19 loss to Gardner-Edgerton in Gardner. The Trailblazers outscored the Panthers 29-7 in the second and third quarters combined. The athletic Gardner defense caused Paola fits from the opening tip, and in the process, forced 25 turnovers. In any case, Ross realizes his team has a lot to work on, but also knows Thursday’s loss wasn’t all bad. “It’s better to lose to a team that disrupts us and reveals our weakness, than to beat a team that gives us a false sense of success,” Ross said. “This should be a fairly clear reference point for establishing a focused holiday practice mind-set. I don’t think anyone will argue that we need to get better in a number of areas.” Kylee Mader was the top scorer for the Panthers with six points and also pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Kayla Offutt recorded five points and two steals and Ashlee Johnson finished with three points. Annie Kessler and Rachel Schmidt scored two points and Kessler tied Mader with six rebounds. Melanie Golubski added one point in the loss. Paola shot just five for 33 from the field, while Gardner hit 21 of 53 shots, including six 3-pointers. The Panthers return to action Jan. 8 when they host De Soto and Ross hopes the practice over the holiday break will get his girls back on the right track. “In general, I am really happy with these kids as a team,” he said. “They are Paola. Paola kids don’t shy away from tough expectations. The community expects a lot of them. They expect a lot of themselves. Hence, we push them pretty hard. “We constantly talk about, as Paola, we get everyone’s best game. It means something to beat Paola. That’s a compliment and a burden. The burden is what we carry every day in practice. We can’t allow ourselves to plateau. If we don’t get better, we don’t win. Our kids realize that and they will respond over break.”
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