Edinburgh presses early, then backs off against Metropolitan

For the Daily Journal

Edinburgh opened the 2017-18 girls basketball season with a bang, rolling to an 81-12 win Friday against visiting Indianapolis Metropolitan.

The Lancers’ withering full-court press was in midseason form in their first game.

Edinburgh forced the Pumas into 14 turnovers while building a 30-6 lead in the first quarter of play.

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Coach Amy Schilling dialed back the intensity after the first eight minutes, but the Lancers still walked away with the 69-point win.

“I was definitely happy with our intensity in that first quarter. That’s the way we want to play this season,” Schilling said. “We had some other things that we need to clean up, but we definitely saw a lot of good things out there.”

Edinburgh (1-0) wasted little time in jumping on the shorthanded Pumas, who dressed only six players. Taylor Tatlock got the Lancers’ run started with a steal and a basket 45 seconds into the game, and they never looked back.

Edinburgh scored the first nine points, then posted runs of 10-0 and 11-0 to build its 30-6 first quarter lead.

Schilling called off the press in the second quarter, but Metro managed only four more points as Edinburgh took a 46-10 lead into the half.

Schilling said that she was hoping to get a chance to play the press longer, but the quick blowout allowed her to work on the team’s halfcourt man-to-man defense.

“We gave up too much penetration into the paint. That’s something we’re going to have to work on,” Schilling said.

“And we know that teams are going to play a lot of zone on us, and I wanted them to work in catching and shooting and I thought they did a better job of that late in the game.”

Edinburgh shut out Metropolitan in the third quarter to make it 59-10, then closed with a 22-2 fourth.

Eleven of the 12 players in uniform scored for the Lancers including three in double figures. Tatlock led the way with 15 points, while Haven Link scored 14 and Sidney Beier had 13.

Sophomore point guard Destiney Ramey had nine points and dished out seven assists, while Beier had five steals. As a team, Edinburgh shot 56 percent from the floor (39 of 70) and had 19 offensive rebounds.

“I thought we had a lot of good depth tonight. Everybody that got on the floor contributed in some way and nearly everybody had an assist. We had 24 as a team,” Schilling said.

Edinburgh travels to Indianapolis Lutheran on Tuesday.