LCI’s Strong Second Half Secures Trophy

Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

The old adage turned out to be true in the girl’s final of the Redmen Invitation Tournament between Lethbridge’s LCI Clippers and Edmonton’s Jasper Place Rebels.

After falling behind by as much as 13 points in the first quarter, the Clippers fought back to capture the tournament championship with a 73-67 victory.

Forward Cassidy Taal score 24 points to lead the Clippers as well as capturing the tournament MVP award.

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The Rebels were led by Laurissa Weigl and Madison Wilson, who each scored 21 and 17 points respectively.

Weigl played a huge role for the Rebels throughout the opening half.  The 5’9” guard scored 15 first-half points, many which came courtesy of her deadly accurate 3-point shot, including a bucket from at least three feet beyond the arch.

The Rebels led 25-12 at the end of first quarter.

The Rebels’ strong shooting performance continued through the second quarter, and when the shots didn’t fall, they got excellent offensive rebounding from their front-court which turned into easy buckets.

The half ended with a 41-29 Rebels lead.

But the second half was a completely different game.

The Clippers found their groove and started to execute a newly-formed triangle-and-two defense in an attempt to slow down the Rebels’ outside shooters.

“It was a really sluggish first half, but when we switched to the triangle-and-two and they could not make the adjustment,” said Clippers’ head coach JayleneLyons.  “We haven’t really practiced it too much this year so our players did a really good job of picking it up on such short notice.”

The defense worked to perfection, and led to numerous turnovers and easy transition baskets for the Clippers.

By the time the third quarter ended, the Clippers had whittled the lead down to 52-51 in favour of the Rebels, but the momentum was clearly on the Clippers’ side.

And after getting out-rebounded in the game’s first half, the Clippers turned the tables on that vital aspect also, especially on the offensive boards.

That was one of the keys we talked about at halftime,” said Lyons.  Change the defense and make sure we were getting the boards at both ends because we knew we wouldn’t be able to make up the differential otherwise.  To be down by 13 and then come back and win by seven is pretty big.”

Just six minutes into the fourth quarter the Clippers held a 63-57 lead.

The lead lasted almost until the end, but with the Clippers leading 70-64, the Rebels converted on a three-point play make it a one-possession game.

But two clutch free-throws by Taal in the final seconds sealed the deal championship for the Clippers.

Click HERE for tournament game results