Columbian holds off Rams

It wasn't always pretty, but Columbian got the job done Thursday night. The Tornadoes, who were coming off a win at Ontario Wednesday night, hosted Upper Sandusky Thursday in a non-league tilt.TC started well, scoring the first nine points of the contest and limiting the Rams to just seven total points in the opening half.Columbian's offense was a little out of whack for most of the game — which a lot of credit goes to an improved Rams club with active hands defensively — but whether it was rushed shots, some sloppy turnovers or ill-advised shots, the Rams stayed in the game well into the fourth period.However, the Rams were unable to score against Columbian's length and size in its various zone defenses as TC won 36-22."We need to get in the gym and shoot a little bit," TC coach Amy Cooper said. "We were off Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then came in Wednesday and had a game and then had a game tonight, so definitely we are coming in tomorrow and shooting for an hour and a half and just taking it easy a little bit preparing for (Clyde on Saturday)."We just wanted to keep the ball out of (Velourea Stowers) hands. We switch up our zones quite a lot, that's to confuse them, but we had to keep it out of her hands because she just is so powerful in there."Columbian's Serena Ingalls started the contest with a free throw and then Toria Ingalls, Hailey Cooper, Gracie Chester and Lexi Smith all followed with a basket to build the 9-0 advantage. Upper Sandusky (5-12) almost went scoreless in the opening period, but sophomore Kaidance Iles splashed a 3-pointer to get the Rams on the board.Defense still ruled in the first half as 12 combined points were scored in the second frame. Upper Sandusky battled to within 11-7 after consecutive layups from Stowers in the paint, but TC's Dallas Poll made a floater and Toria Ingalls finished the first half with a trey to give TC (7-9) a 16-7 at the half."Their length is just something we don't have to go against in practice," Rams coach Jerry Vent said. "We can rep so many things in practice, but you can't duplicate that length in a zone. We've been shooting the ball better in the last five or six games, but I think the length affected our shots. We rushed them and didn't quite get our feet set on some of those outside shots."Early on we were doing what we wanted trying to puncture that zone in the middle of it, but until the second half we didn't really exploit that with (Stowers) down low. With a young team it's good to see that growth from the first half to the second half, but their length certainly was a problem."Iles began the second half with five straight points for the Rams, but Columbian responded with a 9-0 run capped by a Cooper triple that pushed the lead to 25-12 with 3:25 left in the third. TC won the third quarter 14-9 as it was the lone quarter either team scored in double digits.Columbian went five minutes without scoring in the fourth period, but Upper Sandusky couldn't find the bottom of the net either as both teams recorded six points in the final frame."We guarded them really well in the half court and our initial stuff and we were pressuring them a bit," Vent said. "But again, their length got to us again and rebounding is one of those things where they should maybe get a couple, but not as many as they did based on length. That's a want-to type thing."It's good to come play these games against tough teams outside of your league. I thought we got better tonight. We didn't get out of here with a win like we wanted to, but we definitely did some better things against a zone than we have in the past as far as trying to play inside out."Stowers led all scorers with 10 points for the Rams, while Iles added nine. Toria Ingalls had seven points, while Serena Ingalls, Smith and Chester all had six. With the win, the Tornadoes have won three straight games and will host Clyde Saturday."What I always tell them in the locker room is, 'If your shot isn't falling, then do something different and something different has to be on the defensive end,'" Cooper said. "Going into halftime I think we had nine or 10 steals and that's a good thing for us and it does help that I have a lot of tall girls with really long arms."The girls are starting to click and offensively and defensively they are talking a lot better, so that's what we need to see at the end of the season. That's what we did at the end of last year and hopefully we'll go into the tournament with a lot of energy."