By KEVIN WEAKS
Press Sports
While three teams are now tied atop the District 13A girls’ standings, Dresden might very well be in the driver’s seat.
The Lady Lions earned a season split with fellow first-place team Gleason on Tuesday night, winning 43-34 at the Dresden gym. Those two teams, along with Huntingdon, share the league’s top spot with 12-2 records.
Dresden is 17-4 overall, and Gleason is 18-5.
The Dresden boys, meanwhile, had little trouble in the nightcap on Tuesday with a 65-30 win, improving to 13-7 and 10-4 while dropping Gleason to 2-18 and 2-12.
Looking at the final stretch of the season, Dresden will be favored to win out in its final games before the postseason, beginning Friday night at Clarksburg, while one of the other two teams will be knocked down a notch when Gleason hosts Huntingdon on Friday night.
Should all other games go as expected, according to the standings, then Friday’s game at Gleason will separate the top three teams. A Gleason win will force a coin toss between the Lady Bulldogs and Dresden for the postseason’s top seed as the two teams split in the regular season. A Huntingdon win will give the top seed to Dresden, which has two regular season triumphs over the Fillies.
DHS 43, Gleason 34 (G)
Three double-figure scorers were better than one as Dresden built an early lead and then made the Lady Bulldogs play catch-up the rest of the game.
Amy McAlpin and Carrie Hatchel both put up 12 points, and Hailey Browning pitched in 10 for the Lady Lions. Briana Jones topped all players with 18 for Gleason.
Despite Jones’ points, Dresden was better defensively than when Gleason rolled to a 62-42 win in their previous meeting.
“The first time we played them, they had 39 in the first half,” Dresden head coach Jonathan West said. “Our defense there was horrible, but tonight we were much better. We challenged their shooters. We let them get in the lane too many times, and Jones is a great player who’s going to get her points. We just tried to keep her from blowing up and then keep the others from hurting us too badly. So, to give up only 34, that’s pretty good.”
Dresden’s effect on the Lady Bulldogs’ offense, Gleason assistant coach Ashley Ayers said, was the difference in the game.
“Offensively, we never got in our groove, and we have to do a better job on that end of the floor,” she said. “They played up and aggressive man-to-man defense, and we’ve seen a lot of that this year. We just didn’t do enough on the offensive end.”
Browning scored twice on layups, the second from a steal, after Hatchel had knocked down a triple for an early 7-2 Dresden lead.
Helped by Jaclyn Montgomery’s three-point play late in the first quarter and Jones’ drive into the lane to start the second, Gleason grabbed a 10-9 lead.
But, Dresden was back in front by six points midway through the quarter and then went to a deliberate, motion offense that resulted in an 18-12 lead.
“They like to do the same thing,” West said of the game’s pace. “When they get a lead, they like to slow the game down and make you chase and then hit their free throws. We got up and were able to reverse the game a little. Not that we weren’t trying to score, but we just wanted to get good looks.”
Gleason trailed 27-25 after three but never got any closer. Dresden finished by hitting 5-of-7 at the line.
Both teams connected on nine 2-point field goals and hit 10 free throws, but Dresden hit five triples to just two for Gleason.
DHS 65, Gleason 30 (B)
A slow start — Dresden led 4-0 at 3:24 of the first period — was only a speed bump for the Lions, who began to get transition baskets and take a 30-14 halftime lead.
Joey Caldwell had a putback after Austin Daniel took a steal the other way late in the first frame and then popped a triple to start the second. The Lions led 27-10 at one point in the second.
“We started running the floor a little better,” Dresden head coach Tommy Dilday said. “We were able to get some rebounds and get it out so we could run the floor, and we were able to get it to the rim. It seemed like when we did that, we were able to get into a rhythm and finally put a little distance between us them.
“It wasn’t a case of the offense not working, we just weren’t knocking down shots early. And that’s been the thing lately in some of the games we’ve lost.”
Austin Maxey knocked down a trey, and Caldwell drove in the lane to put the Lions up 52-22 at 7:11 of the final frame, and the margin stayed at 30-plus the rest of the way.
Caldwell scored 13, both Daniel and Maxey both scored 12 and Kaleb Houston added 10 points for Dresden. Keaton Collins and Alex Hahn had seven for Gleason. Published in The WCP 1.31.13