Dover — The Lebanon Lady Tigers had a lot of adversity to overcome Friday night in the sectional semifinals.
First, head coach Dave Ferrell and JV coach Troy Terrill stepped down for the rest of the season Friday afternoon, leaving varsity assistant Penny Spolyar to coach with boys’ head coach Albert Hendrix helping her out on the sideline.
Then in the first quarter, three Lebanon starters got into foul trouble, and sat for most of the half. Despite all that, the Tigers came together in the second half and pulled away from Crawfordsville, winning 74-50 to advance to the sectional championship game against Western Boone.
“They were extremely focused to start the game,” Spolyar said of the Tigers. “We had a few jitters in the first quarter and got into some foul trouble and had to sit three of our starters. I think the girls off the bench gave us some quality minutes and did a really job. In the second half, we came out as a team and put a good third quarter together. I am really proud of them. They had a great effort tonight.”
Lebanon led by seven after a quarter and built the lead as high as 12 in the second quarter before a 7-0 Crawfordsville run right before the half made it 33-28 after 16 minutes.
The Tigers played most of the quarter without starters Katie Curtis, Aspen Davis, and Carly Greene due to foul trouble and played the five-girl unit of starters Mattie Lindner and Lexi Reese and reserves Whitney Cosgray, Kate O’Rourke and Kallee Rice.
Spolyar was proud of the effort of the three girls off the bench.
“Those girls haven’t got a lot of minutes, but they have been in big, tough games,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence in those girls and their teammates were very supportive of them tonight. They were encouraging them and I think that made a big difference too – they knew everyone was behind them."
Curtis came out on fire in the third quarter, scoring seven points and recording three steals in the first 1:26 of the frame to build the Lebanon lead by 12.
For more of this story, read Saturday's Lebanon Reporter.
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