Dec 9, 2015 3 min read

Sloppy was the first word to come to the mind of Wash High head girls’ basketball coach Mike Maltoney.

Jefferson-Morgan and Washington both pride themselves in a fast-paced style of play.

Neither team could imitate that up-and-down attack in part to the abundant amount of fouls and tie-ups in the Prexies’ 45-37 victory Wednesday night.

With five turnovers and four fouls in the opening minutes of the first quarter, the Prexies (3-1) were forced to slow its tempo.

“We try to play a quick game,” said Maltoney. “It took us back a little bit with running into foul trouble early. We just had to fight through it and let the girl’s athletic ability take over.”

That ability allowed Wash High to go on an eight-point run to take an 8-2 lead.

It was a lead the Prexies wouldn’t surrender to the Rockets (3-1).

With senior guard Ally Bogden out with a shoulder injury suffered in J-M’s last game against Carmichaels, added scoring responsibility fell on Kayla Yorko, who was marked all night by the Prexies’ defense.

“We wanted to limit her outside shooting as much as possible,” said Maltoney.

Yorko took numerous three-point shots but was able to connect on only two.

“She knows that we have other capable shooters on the team,” said second year J-M head coach Chris Niemiec. “We need to get those players involved more, be more patient and take better shots.”

Niemiec admits that the step up in competition to a talented Class AA Prexies team led by three seniors was something that the Rockets needed after their first three games.

“Washington is a really good team,” said Niemiec. “Defensively, they were a step above our first three opponents. When you can’t shoot the ball and have a tough time rebounding, it makes it really hard to score. That’s what happened tonight.”

Any hope the Rockets had a comeback heading into halftime down 27-22, was erased with a three-point third quarter. Neither team scored during a four-minute stretch of the third quarter.

The Rockets were paced by junior guard Anna Mattish, who kept the score in single digits with two fourth-quarter three-pointers from the baseline.

However, those were complemented by four unanswered points by Wash High’s Torri Finley with a little over three minutes left, extending the Prexies’ lead to 42-30.

J-M had a difficult time stopping the inside combination of Mikala Maltony and Tajah Gordon, who scored 10 and 13 points, respectively.

Mattish finished with 11 points.

Though the game was considered choppy for both teams, Maltony knows a lot of improvement can be made despite his team’s three-straight wins.

“We need to improve everywhere,” he said. “We are starting two freshmen with three seniors. Getting them to play together is going to be important and for the younger players to understand how much of a faster pace there is playing at the varsity level.”