JAMESTOWN — He wanted his kids to prevent Greeneview from hitting three-point shots, but it turned out that Catholic Central coach Brandon Peterson’s kids could hit threes pretty well, too.
The Lady Irish sank seven 3-pointers for the game, and gave host Greeneview troubles offensively as well, to claim a big 51-39 road win on Dec. 5 on the Rams’ home floor.
“We knew that they were a three-point heavy team. They’re super super strong in that area, and so we wanted to make sure to take care of that,” Peterson said. “Another thing is, we just had to play well in this gym. This is one of the hardest gyms in the area to play in, so that was a big thing. And of course, we wanted to limit (Sylvie) Sonneman. She’s one of the best, and we had to really watch out for her.”
The Irish limited Greeneview to a pair of 3-pointers for the game. Of the Rams’ 39 points, Sonneman accounted for 21 of them.
Meanwhile, Catholic Central junior guard Abigail Peterson hit four treys of her own on her way to a game-high 22-point effort. Sophomore forward Mallory Mullen also finished in double-figure scoring with 11 points.
Coach Peterson said the Irish threes were a nice surprise.
“We weren’t expecting that. The idea was for us to just try to drive to the basket, but when the threes were goin’ down sometimes you don’t want to pull the reins on them,” he said.
In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Catholic Central led for much of the first half, but a reverse lay-in by Sonneman just before time expired in the first half left the two Ohio Heritage Conference contenders evened up at the break at 23-all.
Third-quarter threes by Serenity Castle, Abbigail Peterson, Jenna Skeens and one at the third-quarter buzzer by Peterson, put the Irish out in front, 39-29, with just the fourth quarter yet to play.
Not quite done in bombing from beyond the arc, Peterson began the fourth quarter with another from the right wing, and Greeneview could never get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
“They played good defense, and they really hurt us offensively,” Rams coach Tim Hoelle said. “It’s hard guarding the kids they’ve got, because everybody on the court can shoot it. So you’re kinda trying to pick your poison as far as who you do and don’t want to take shots.
“They ran what they wanted to do offensively, they executed and got the shots that they wanted. And our defense didn’t do anything to stop it. I thought they played harder all around,” Hoelle added.
Catholic Central is now 4-1 overall and 1-0 in the OHC. The Irish will host another Greene County team on Saturday. Cedarville plays in the Jason Collier Gym for a 7:30 p.m. contest on Saturday, Dec. 7.
Greeneview (1-2, 1-1 OHC) also plays on Saturday. The Rams have a 12:30 p.m. afternoon contest at Greenon.
