The Atlantic Girls Basketball team let one slip away to start the 2016-17 season at home against Carroll Monday night. The Trojans led by 10 at the end of the third quarter but let that lead slip away in a 70-67 loss.
The two teams traded the lead back and forth down the stretch and Atlantic lead by 1 before Madison Lingle nailed one of her 4 fourth quarter 3-pointers to put the Tigers back up by 1. Catherine Leonard was then fouled on the other end and went to the line for two free throws for Atlantic. She made the first but missed the second and the ball ended up tied up on a fight for the rebound. The possession arrow belonged to Carroll and they in-bounded the ball and ran off about five seconds until Atlantic was able to foul Tiger Sophomore Taylor Mohr with 9 seconds left. Mohr, who was playing much of the final quarter with four fouls, knocked down the 1-and-1 freebies and pushed the lead out to 3. Atlantic had one final three point heave from Baylee Newell that fell short and time ran out.
Atlantic Coach Kelly Juhl was disappointed that his team broke down defensively in the fourth quarter and said Carroll found the right moment in the game to get hot.
Carroll was led in the win by Lingle with 19 points. Taylor Mohr finished with 16. Atlantic was led in the loss by Baylee Newell with 18 points and Brooke Newell with 13. The Trojans really struggled in the fourth quarter to get out on the hot shooters for the Tigers and Coach Juhl said they didn’t execute the defensive game-plan the Trojans wanted to.
Atlantic doesn’t get any time to dwell on the loss as they head to Denison tonight for a tough game against the Lady Monarchs. Coach Juhl knows they will need to have a short memory to put the tough loss behind them and be ready for another big test.
We’ll have coverage of the Trojans and Lady Monarchs for you tonight on KJAN. Pre-Game scheduled for 7:15pm with Tip-off at 7:30pm.