Shots finally fall for Timothy Christian at Westmont
Timothy Christian just had to be patient and wait for its shots to start dropping through the net.
It was only a matter of time.
The shots started to drop late in the second quarter, and by the time the Trojans stopped shooting they had earned a 42-18 nonconference victory at Westmont.
"We finally made a couple of shots," Timothy Christian coach Michele Strube said. "Lauren (Gehrke) had two 3s in the second. Sureya Alex came out in the third with two 3s.
"We really were trying to do our game and not their game. But we have a habit of doing this. We were playing into their game a little bit. Our inside wasn't getting a lot of looks. Our outside shooters weren't shooting (well)."
Trailing 10-6, Timothy Christian closed the second quarter with eight straight points to take a 14-10 lead at the break.
"We started pressing, so that was really good," Trojans freshman Hannah Schuringa said. "That got our energy up so we got some quick layups and deflections."
It was a sign of things to come for Westmont (1-8), which played just six girls due to injuries and suffered its eighth straight defeat. Senior point guard and captain Kaitlyn Niemer is out for the season with a torn ACL suffered in the season opener, and Francesca Fabry and Ashley Eiermann rested concussions.
"That's the way it goes," Sentinels coach Rich Panitch said. "The kids got tired. What happened was we played a really good game, a really tough game against Plano on Thursday. And having five or six girls, it's really hard for them to keep their legs. So they kind of wore down in the second half."
The Trojans (7-4) picked up in the third quarter where they left off in the second. The lead hit double digits at the 3:27 mark of the third quarter when a 3-pointer by Alex, the freshman point guard, made the score 26-14.
"It was just a matter of time," Panitch said. "They went to man-to-man (defense). They're a good team, very big, handle the ball well, good shooters. They were really good in the second half."
The Trojans expanded their lead in the fourth quarter by scoring the first 13 points of the period.
The 5-foot-11 Schuringa stood out for Timothy Christian with a double-double, coming off the bench to score a game-best 13 points and grab 10 rebounds.
"She's great," Strube said. "We'll work on her post moves, but what she's doing is she's getting the rebounds and putbacks. She's working hard to get her opportunities, and she finishes."
"That's what I like to do, to get (offensive) rebounds and put them right back up," Schuringa added.
Alex, Olivia Schuringa, Gehrke and Jordyn Strube scored 6 points apiece for Timothy Christian, which won its fourth straight game.
Senior Sydney Pardy led the Sentinels with 8 points.