Hitting the road Monday, the Union Lady ’Cats defeated Northwest in Cedar Hill, 53-39.
Union (4-2) returns to action Tuesday at Rockwood Summit.
“Northwest is an interesting place to play and I’m glad our kids hung in for the win,” Union Head Coach Grant Young said. “After the game the team wasn’t pleased with their performance. The good thing is we can have the chance to rebound our effort against Summit tonight.”
Union led for much of the game Monday, but had to fight back from a 6-0 deficit.
Young stated that Alysiah Whittaker, a 6-1 post player for Northwest, proved to be a tough defensive task for Union and she scored the first six points.
“We are still struggling with post defense against tall forwards,” Young said. “We will get better as the season goes.”
Union pulled back to lead 13-8 after one quarter and then rolled to a 30-13 lead at the half.
“We had gotten great looks at shots in the first quarter and couldn’t put them in,” Young said. “In the second quarter, we found Rachael Bassett inside. She had a scrappy quarter inside scoring 10 of our 17 points.”
Northwest came out strong in the third quarter and outscored Union, 16-5. Union’s lead was cut to 37-29.
“We preach that the first four minutes of the third quarter will set the tone for the second half and it certainly did,” Young said. “We started our first four possessions with turnovers and gave up too many easy shots around the basket. Northwest took our 17-point lead and cut it to eight.”
Union responded with a 16-9 fourth quarter to close out the game with the victory.
Bethany Coons was Union’s leading scorer with 13 points.
Bassett closed with 12 points after scoring 10 in the second quarter.
Whitney Vitt ended the game with 10 points, giving Union three players with double-digit scoring.
Other scorers were Alyssa Coons with five points, Megan Altemueller with three and Kaila AuBuchon, Jill Johnston and Anna Houston with two points apiece.
