Prep Girls Hoops: Winning Is Contagious
Basketball - in a nut shell - is a game of runs.
No one knows that better than Eldorado girls basketball coach Scott Artman.
Monday night's matchup between Eldorado and Carmi-White County, who played in the play-in game in the Harrisburg Class 2A Regional had plenty.
The two teams battled through nine lead changes as Eldorado pulled out a 52-40 overtime win against the Bulldogs at Davenport Gymnasium.
Eldorado, who had lost the last two meetings against Carmi-White County in the regular season, pulled off its first win against the Bulldogs since the Harrisburg Invitational to start the season.
Eldorado has now won 8 of their last 10 games and are on a four game winning streak,
The Eagles were led by Jacqlyn Artman and Abby Steed, who provided enough offense for Eldorado in the extra session to earn the win.
Artman had three points in OT to finish with a team-high 15 points, while Steed, who had four points in overtime, had 12 points.
Caitlin Stafford also finished in double figures for Eldorado with 10 points.
Eldorado, who shot 3-of-4 from the field in the extra four minutes and went 4-of-6 from the free throw line, outscored Carmi-White County 10-2.
"As a coach, if you get out on a good run in the first quarter or first half, you know that with the level of competition we are playing, it's going come back at you at some point in the game, it's just a matter of how you handle it when it happens," Artman said.
Eldorado started the third quarter with a 35-26 lead after Paige Zertuche (nine points) tickled the twine for a trifecta. The three was the first for the senior guard after missing seven straight.
The Bulldogs then started their run, going on a 4-0 run to make it 35-30 and eventually cut it to 39-38 after Morgan Combs made a bucket with 1:06 to play.
After Riley Duckworth made one-of-two at the free throw line with just 46.8 seconds to pay, CWC responded with runner in the lane by Paige Winter to tie the game at 40-all.
Artman said afterwards he felt it was a lackluster performance from his Eagle bunch from the start.
"We just didn't get rolling offensively until late in the fourth and into the overtime period to where we started attacking and wanting to get the job done. We've done that the last couple of games and we have to understand that we can't settle for playing lackluster basketball on the offensive end.
Defensively, we played about as well as we can play. We're understanding the defense and how to shift and help people and how to pick up cutters coming across the floor, but a we have to pick it up a little bit better."
Eldorado returns to action tonight (Tuesday) as they play No. 1 seeded Hamilton County at 6 p.m. That game will be followed by No. 2 seeded Fairfield taking on No. 3 seed Harrisburg.
Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
Eldorado 10 08 14 08 10 - 50
Carmi-White County 11 08 07 14 02 - 42
Eldorado: Stafford 4-8 1-5 10, Zertuche 2-11 3-4 9, Steed 6-13 0-0 12, Artman 7-12 1-4 15, Bramlet 0-1 0-0 0, Duckworth 1-3 2-4 4, Peavler 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-48 7-17 50.
Carmi-White County: Winter 1-4 3-4 3, Vaughan 5-7 0-0 10, Ackerman 1-4 2-3 4, Combs 9-17 2-4 20, Wheeler 1-4 1-5 3, Parks 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 17-38 8-16 42.
3-point FG: Eldorado 3-18 (Stafford 1-4, Zertuche 2-11, Steed 0-3), Carmi-White County 0-2 (Ackerman 0-1, Combs 0-1). Rebounds: Eldorado 25, Carmi-White County 32. Fouls: Eldorado 15, Carmi-White County 14.