We started to put a lot of pressure on them defensively, which turned into offensive opportunities late.
Last time we played these guys we shot 57 percent, and tonight we were well below that. That's to Fort Dodge's credit. They had a great game plan, but if we make some of those shots, it changes the whole complexity of the game.
Our goal coming over here was to just try and win. We didn't want to look past the game and look ahead to Dowling and let this one jump up and catch us. We could've been better in areas but we did what we had to do in the fourth quarter to win the game.
It was a slower game offensively for both teams, but we kept falling further behind. We had some girls step up late in the game, and fortunately it wasn't too late.
We made our free throws late in the game and that was big.
Natalie has done what I thought she'd be able to do; she's just done it better than I thought she'd be able to. She likes to compete and she's really done a nice job stepping into that starting spot. Hopefully she'll be able to continue to do that.
The kids really stepped up to the plate and played extremely well on both sides of the floor. We switched to a half-court defense, and that slowed down Johnston and allowed us to get some transition points.
Ames-Valley is a great rivalry, so we know it's one game where we never have to worry about focus with the kids. The kids had great focus and executed the game plan, and we were able to take away a victory.
They knew what we were going to do; we knew what they were going to do, and they just did their stuff a little bit better. We missed an awful lot of shots, but that's got nothing to do with X's and O's. We just missed a lot of shots we've been making.
We started out sluggish, but they responded well and picked up the pressure and forced some turnovers.
