Lady Dogs On A Roll

DAYTON - After the Lady Bulldogs' game against the TCP Jaguars was over last Tuesday, one of the Blue Mountain League referees came up to head coach Clayton Strong in the boys' locker room and told the Dayton coach what was already on everyone's mind.

"They've made an immense improvement since I saw them earlier in the season," the ref told Strong.

After beating TCP, 47-37, Tuesday night, the girls went 5-6 in league and 7-12 overall - not a record many observers would have expected at the start of the season. After losing to WP last Monday, Jan. 30, the Lady Bulldogs stumbled briefly against TCP last Wednesday, then defeated Liberty Christian, 47-35, last Friday.

"We finally gelled as a team and played as one," senior Shelby Smith said after the game.

The Bulldogs struggled a bit early on in the Tuesday game against the Jaguars, but quickly gained the upper hand with superior rebounding, steals and coast-to-coast breakaways.

"That was as hard as I've ever seen those girls play," Strong said.

Halfway into the second quarter, the teams were neckto neck, 22-22, exchanged leads and leveled out again at 27-27, but with 5 seconds to go in the half, Samura Miller's rebound put her team ahead by two points going into the break.

In the second half, Nicole Lambert opened the scoring and even though the Jaguars had some answers, the Lady Bulldogs slowly began pulling ahead, ending the third quarter, 38-35.

Lambert opened the scoring in the fourth quarter and dunked the ball again moments later on an assist from Shelby Smith and to the loud applause from the home crowd.

By this point, the forward Dayton defense shadowed each Jaguar move, double-teaming key players and effectively shutting them down.

"I thought our girls did a great job on No. 44 (TCP's Maddie LeBrun) and No. 5 (Alejandra Cuevas)," Strong said. "We had some foul trouble last week, but this time we contested a lot of shots without fouling."

In Dayton's last encounter with Jaguars on their home court, the Bulldogs "didn't shoot the ball well" in the second and third quarters and "we turned it over too much," the coach said. "They shot the ball real well (45 percent from the field). We just didn't do the little things."

But in last Tuesday's rematch, the girls kept their composure when the score was still close (38-35) and methodically extended the lead again," Strong said.

Layups from Lambert and Smith helped bring up the score to 46-37, where it stayed until just before the end, when McKayla

Bickelhaupt made one of two free-throw shots and created a double-digit margin that became the final score.

The Lady Bulldogs, who play DeSales in their last regular season game, are likely to face the TCP again in the playoffs on Tuesday. The location of the loser-out game has yet to be determined, but chances are good Dayton will have homecourt advantage.

"If we keep gelling and keep doing that," Strong said about his team's intensity in Tuesday's game against the Jaguars, "who knows?"

Dayton vs TCP

(Feb. 1)

38-53

Dayton(38)11 7 614-38

TCP (53) 10 19 9 15 - 53

Nicole Lambert 9, McKayla Bickelhaupt 7, Shelby Smith 7, Lexie

Ramirez 4 and Jessica Tate 4.

Dayton vs Liberty Christian

(Feb. 3)

47-35

Dayton(47)138 719-47

LC (35) 10 7 13 5 - 35

Smith 12, Bickelhaupt 11, Courtney Fuller 8 and Lambert 6.

Dayton vs TCP

(Feb. 7)

47-37

Dayton(47) 111899-47

TCP(37) 72082-37

Bickelhaupt 14, Lambert 11,

Smith 8, Ramirez 7 and Miller 4.