Grizzly girls fall hard to Benson
Poor shooting and too many turnovers was a recipe for disaster for the McMinnville girls basketball team on Tuesday. Mac (1-3) lost to Benson (2-1) 63-19.
It was only slightly better last Friday, Dec. 13, during a 39-74 home loss to Jefferson.
While junior forward Ruby Riddle returned from an early-season injury for both, Mac was without their top player, Macie Arzner, who sprained an ankle last week against Silverton. That forced the Grizzlies to shuffle positions, and head coach Sean Coste said his players were out-of-sync early and often.
“When you’re trying to think on the court against a really and it’s not instinctive … I think people were shaken by playing in different spots, and it just snowballed,” Coste said. “A lot of that is on me. I need to be making sure we prepare multiple kids for different positions.”
The Grizzlies were also prone to turnovers without their lead ball handler.
“When (Arzner) is in the game, she brings a calmness and it’s hard to take the ball from her,” Coste said. “Our offense looked stagnated and a little bit like we weren’t prepared to execute in different spots.”
Benson stole the ball 19 times from the Grizzlies, who shot just 19% in the game.
“It was a good game to see some of the things we’re not doing well magnified,” Coste said.
The Grizzlies are now 1-3 in their difficult non-league schedule, which continues tonight against the reigning 6A state champions, South Medford, in the first round of the Capitol City Classic at Chemeketa Community College in Salem.
Despite being on the wrong side of back-to-back blowouts, Coste said they remain positive.
“We talked in practice about how this whole process is about growth, you have to be in a growth mindset,” he said. “We know we can be a lot better than we played against Jefferson and Benson, even without Macie.
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