MARYSVILLE — The Fredericktown Freddies knew that if they wanted to advance to districts, they had to have an answer to Northmor’s star forward Jordan Kimes.
Instead, Kimes had her way with Fredericktown throughout the game, scoring 23 points and landing 11 rebounds as she led the Knights to a 42-31 victory in Tuesday’s sectional final.
Fredericktown fought back by using the entire roster, with every player taking shots from all parts of the court. The Freddies could not get many good looks at the basket, shooting just 30 percent for the game.
The scoreboard shows how evenly the ball was distributed. Courtney Jackson, Hope Huvler and Emily Williams each led the Freddies in scoring, with six points apiece.
“It’s kind of hard to point the finger at one thing,” Fredericktown head coach Wes Elifritz said. “We definitely didn’t shoot the ball as well as we had in our first tournament game. We didn’t get the shots to fall when we needed. Defensively, we had some breakdowns that gave (Northmor) some easy looks.”
Defensively, Fredericktown was completely shut down in terms of rebounding. Northmor had outrebounded the Freddies 15-6 in the first half, allowing just two offensive boards.
“When you don’t get second chances, and you’re not hitting your first chances, you can’t get any rhythm,” Elifritz said.
Knowing they had a size advantage, the Freddies tried to get the ball inside to their post players, Williams and Huvler. But Northmor’s guards were masterful in playing man-on-man with Fredericktown’s guards.
By the second half, the guards finally found ways to get inside, but Northmor’s post players quickly surrounded the ball. So Fredericktown focused on three-point shooting, but even that failed, despite being left wide open on several occasions. The Freddies went just 2-for-16 from three-point range in the game.
