Girls' b-ball dominated by Cougars, lose fourth straight

DEC 19, MONTGOMERY BLAIR HIGH SCHOOL-

The Blazers were defeated 70-45 by Quince Orchard High School tonight, as they fell to a disappointing 0-4 record. The 70-point Cougar performance marks the highest output of points by any Blair opponent over the last two years. Blair was outplayed by the Cougars, as poor rebounding and lazy defense continued to be the story of the season.

The Blazers were competitive early on, as the score was tied at 11 partly due to strong play by senior guard Jennifer Sindall. Sindall scored the Blazers' first two field goals by swishing two three-pointers en route to a 12 point performance, with all of her points coming off threes. Unfortunately, Quince Orchard stormed back with a 12-0 run to end the first quarter. With a tremendous outpouring of 23 first-quarter points, the Cougars never looked back.

The key to the Blazers' loss was the Cougars' domination on the boards. Blair seemed to be playing timidly, had its inside players in foul trouble, and was undersized, with three guards on the court for most of the game. For the entire game, Blair managed to collect only 23 rebounds.

Blair scored only six fourth-quarter points and Quince Orchard ended the game on a 12-2 run. Coach William Lindsay feels the team needs to find a way to mount a comeback, "The effort was there," he said, "but we dropped a little of that intensity when we started losing. We've got to be able to offset there deficits. We've been putting ourselves in a hole. It gets tough to pull ourselves out."

Junior center Emily Ramsay led the Blazers with nine rebounds to go along with her ten points. Senior center Allyson Swailes had nine points and six rebounds but was held scoreless in the crucial first and fourth quarters. Junior shooting guard Kidesh Brown was aggressive and compiled five points, five rebounds and tied a team high four assists.

The Blazers have winter break to work on their games before commencing play in 2003 at Sherwood on Thursday, January 2 and then at home against Whitman, on tuesday, January 7.