The Lady Bulldogs buckled down and were tough Tuesday night.
Dove Creek established control early with hard nose defense and forced turnover after turnover. The Lady Bulldogs ran away in transition with a 50-24 home nonconference win over the Navajo Prep junior varsity.
What I liked about this tonight was they full court pressed, 34th year Dove Creek coach Jim Buffington said. Teams around the league have been doing it to us. We just needed to work and work against that full court press. We did. Thats what I was happy about.
The Eagles made the drive from Farmington in a rematch from a game played on Jan. 27, in New Mexico. That contest was a 55-27 beat down by the Lady Bulldogs. Not much changed Tuesday.
Dove Creek (10-6, 4-4 1A San Juan Basin League) snapped a two-game losing streak behind sophomore center Madison Young cleaning the glass. She snagged every rebound that came her way and scored plenty of second chance points. Dove Creek led 17-2 after one quarter of play.
Im kind of taller than all of them, so its easier to get rebounds, Young said. I actually blocked out tonight and it paid off.
Jessica Guynes scored back-to-back buckets at the beginning of the second quarter to give the Lady Bulldogs a 21-2 lead. Dove Creek built a 35-8 lead at halftime.
The largest advantage for the Lady Bulldogs was 31 points. That came at the end of the third quarter when Dove Creek was comfortably up 44-13.
Buffington cleared the bench in the fourth quarter. The old ball coach got quality play out of freshman reserve Ana Lee, who scored all seven points in the final stanza.
Danielle Coleman hit two second half 3-pointers to spark some life into the Lady Eagles. But it wasnt nearly enough, as Dove Creek rolled to a 26-point win.
Before the game, he (Buffington) talked to us about kind of being weak on our press. I think we stepped it up tonight and got through their press, Young said. Its usually our weakness, but we did really good tonight. Maybe this will boost our confidence up to beat Norwood.
Young had a double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds in three quarters of play. Older sister Zoey Young scored eight points.
We told her at halftime, she played so well on the inside, that I didnt even want her to think about stepping outside, said Buffington about Madison Young. I said, Just stay in there and well see if we can get you the ball. She came on pretty strong.
Coleman led Navajo Prep with 10 points.
The Lady Bulldogs will step back into league play against first-place Norwood at home Friday at 5:30 p.m. Dove Creek will hit the road at Ouray on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.