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Lady Vandals beat CORL, 44-28, behind strong second half surge

 

The Lady Vandals bounced back from a tough loss to Piasa (Southwestern) at home Saturday afternoon with a 44-28 win over Christ Our Rock Lutheran Tuesday night, improving to 6-2 on the season.
It was a slow start offensively, as Vandalia didn’t notch its first points of the game until a little more than halfway through the first quarter, allowing CORL to come out to an early 6-0 lead.  
The Lady Vandals were able to tie the game at 6 apiece following a pair of free throws from Makayla Tinker with less than three minutes in the first.  Both teams traded baskets before a layup from Anna Miller in transition gave Vandalia a 10-9 lead going into the second quarter.
The offensive struggles continued for both teams, as  CORL was able to tie the game at 18 apiece going into the second half, following a late free throw.
The Lady Vandals raised the defensive intensity in the second half, leading to a much more efficient offensive performance. A layup from Madelyn Hosick gave Vandalia a 29-26 advantage to close out the third quarter.
“I think we started taking better shots in the third quarter really,” Vandalia head coach Michelle McNary said.  “We were able to slow it down in the fourth quarter and get some high percentage shots, because the first half we shot just horrendous.”  
From there, Vandalia began to pull away, forcing CORL to commit errors on offense with a press-style defense.  Olivia Marquardt capitalized on a stolen inbounds pass with a layup to give Vandalia a 35-26 lead early in the fourth quarter.
“Olivia did a really nice job. I thought this was by far her best game. A total game, as far as she got a lot of nice rebounds, she ran the floor well, gets out for us to push ahead.” McNary said. “She did a real nice job of cutting backdoor. Hopefully, that continues because, it would be nice to have another scoring threat every night."
“In the second half, when we put the press on, it caused them some problems. I thought we could probably do that, but didn’t know if we would get ourselves in foul trouble early, so we were waiting if we needed it in the end,” McNary said. “Our zone defense early was a little flat. So we needed it and the girls stepped up and did a nice job. “
Tinker finished with a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds, shooting a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line.
“She is capable of doing that every night. She has a nice shot and she is comfortable going there. There’s nobody I’d rather have there than her in situations where we need points," McNary said.
Other contributors were Marquardt, with 10 points and five rebounds; Hosick, with six points; Karlie Bright, with six points; Leah Francis, with three points; and Anna Miller, with two points.
 

Madelyn Hosick drives to the hoop for a layup over a CORL defender Tuesday night. Hosick finished the game with six points.

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