The Lady Crimsons turned the ball over 27 times against Henderson County, which proved fatal in a 48-44 loss which ended Manual’s run in the RAATZ Fence Classic Tournament.
The loss ends the Lady Crimsons four-game winning streak and brings them down to 16-5 on the season, while propelling the #2 ranked Lady Colonels to 18-1 and allowing them to remain undefeated against in-state competition. This is the second time the Lady Colonels have beat Manual this season.
Head coach Jeffrey Sparks’s (History) main concern was the team’s excess of turnovers.
“They played harder than we did,” Sparks said following the loss. “Too many turnovers today. Too many turnovers off the dribble. We got off to a great start, and then we kind of got away from it. For whatever reason, we weren’t doing the same things that got us this recent success.”
Manual started off strong with a three-point shot by Aricka Prentice (12, #25), followed by two jumpers from Sydney MacBlane (11, #22) and Teanna Curry (12, #0) to give Manual a 7-0 lead at the beginning of the first quarter, a lead they carried to the end of the first quarter, where they led 7-0.
However, Henderson’s defense got Manual’s number in the second quarter, holding them to just 8 points and cutting their lead to 27-25 at the half.
The game continued to slide out of Manual’s hands in the third quarter, and at the end of the quarter they were behind 37-36. Manual managed to tie the game three times in the fourth quarter, but Henderson hit three shots in the last two minutes to put the game away. Manual was only able to score seven points in the final quarter, five of which came from free throws, which Manual missed several times in the game’s final minutes.
“I feel like we weren’t talking as much as we should have been,” center Krys McCune (11, #55) said about the loss. “They’re just a really good hustle team, and at a certain point we just got out-hustled.”
Manual will now have a short break before beginning the Louisville Invitational Tournament on Tuesday, Jan. 27. Manual’s first opponent in the LIT will be Bullitt Central (6-10).
