Freddies down Bulldogs

Fredericktown — East Knox Bulldogs head girls basketball coach Daryl Uhde contributed their 53-27 loss to the Fredericktown Freddies on Thursday due to a lack of effort by his team. The Bulldogs are now 1-6 overall and 1-4 in the Mid-Buckeye Conference. Fredericktown now sits at 4-2 in the conference with a 6-3 overall record.

“What I put on the board was ‘effort’ tonight before we came out,” said Uhde. “And afterwards I said, ‘I don’t think we did a very good job of that word.’”

The Freddies worked up their lead in the first quarter, holding the Bulldogs to just three points while scoring 14 of their own. Junior Whitney Levering scored 10-of-14 points for Fredericktown to start off.

“We wanted to get the ball into Whitney’s hands and she had a great first half,” Fredericktown head coach Dave Logan said. “She needed a game like that where she really got off scoring early and kept us moving.”

Levering scored another five points in the second quarter, but the Bulldogs’ Elizabeth Beach took control of the game for her team. She scored 9 out of the 11 points in the second quarter, but East Knox still trailed, 28-14, going into the half.

“Liz Beach is a good scorer,” said Logan. “She scored almost half their points. We really fought her and wanted to make sure we didn’t give her easy baskets and I think she earned everything she got.”

Fredericktown dominated the second half, outscoring East Knox, 25-13. The only points scored by East Knox in the third quarter were from free throws by Beach (4-of-4). The Freddies also controlled the boards, pulling down 38 rebounds. East Knox came up with 18.

“We just wanted to make sure we kept the pace going,” said Logan. “We attacked the ball and put more pressure on the ball defensively. We just got down and played better defense, rebounded the ball and didn’t give them second-chance opportunities.”

The Bulldogs tried to get momentum on defense. East Knox played man-to-man and zone defense, but couldn’t stop the Freddies from scoring. East Knox committed 21 turnovers and the Freddies had 20.

“We didn’t play very well at all in any aspect of the game,” said Uhde. “When you play a good team, you have to have your best effort and I didn’t think we had very good effort tonight.”

The Freddies executed with their height advantage once again. Levering finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and one steal. Sophomore post Mackenzie Logan chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds. Junior Emily Ruggles chipped in with nine points and five boards and freshman Courtney Briegel had seven points. The Bulldogs tallest player and second leading scorer, Elizabeth Looney, sat out of the game with an injury. Her absence was noticed.

“We lost (Elizabeth) Looney for the night also which isn’t helpful, she hurt her back. Offensively, that didn’t help. She’s 6-foot. It’s not an excuse, but we missed her with a tall team like that. We were lacking on offense.”

Beach ended the game with 15 points, five rebounds and six steals for the Bulldogs.

East Knox’s junior varsity team went home with a 36-29 victory over the Freddies. Amber Morrison scored 10 points, Sierra Mazzaro finished with eight and Leslie Schultz had six. For Fredericktown, Adria Troyer led the team with 10 points and Trisha Bartram chipped in with six.

Fredericktown and East Knox will be back in action on Saturday. The Freddies go on the road against Loudonville. The Bulldogs plays Johnstown at home. Game time for both teams is at 1 p.m.