She's got to be contained, but I don't think she can be shut down. Keeping them in the 40s or under ought to work for us. We've done OK guarding them, but they've done a better job guarding us.
The last two to three minutes of both halves we showed our poise and looked like a veteran team. We made better decisions down the stretch, and I think that was important, too.
The first time I actually saw her play was when she walked into open gym that summer before her freshman year. From the day she came in, I knew she had some God-given talent. There's no doubt she has changed the program.
We had a couple of offensive breakdowns that we hadn't seen in a while. We just got out of sync and some of that might be to their credit. When they spread us out we had to spread out to guard them, and we're playing a six-person rotation. Ultimately, that caught up with us.
We truly believe in ourselves now, and I don't think for a moment we thought we wouldn't win.
We're in uncharted waters now for (Scioto girls basketball). We've really focused on trying to play possession basketball. We preach that and we're working harder in practice. We should enjoy our seed, but we don't want to lose our edge.
I think we've put three people in double figures just about every game. or pretty darn close to it. You have to focus and key on Crystal, but now with kids who can shoot it and can rebound it, we're a tough team to defend.
It was such a street fight that each possession was so important. We were down six. We were down eight, but we could never get that spurt to make something happen until the end of the game when it was too late. To my kids' credit, they never quit.
I think that's the most wins (Coffman coach Mary Ann Grimes) has ever had for her program, and it would be fabulous for both of us if we were to play each other in the final. It would assure that a Dublin school is going to the sweet 16.
It's a pretty good script. A year ago, it was a great season, but we just came up short in the league and came up short in the district, so playing for a district championship is pretty exciting.
