By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
AMHERST - The Amherst High girls basketball team realized it didn't match up well with a tall Rosholt team. So Tuesday night, the Falcons decided to shy away from their inside game with center Meghan Simkins and instead had their guards drive to the basket.
The plan worked, as the Falcons (6-0 overall) were able to draw fouls and get to the free throw line in a 51-37 non-conference win over the Hornets (3-2).
In an up-tempo game that was marred with turnovers on both sides, the Falcons went on a 8-4 run to close the third quarter and entered the fourth with a 35-31 lead. While Amherst's defense shut down Rosholt, the Falcons won the game at the line, hitting 12-of-21 free throws in the final quarter.
"The big thing I told them is Rosholt is playing pressure defense. They couldn't play the defense they wanted to because we kept taking it to the hoop," Amherst coach Shelli Haferbecker said.
"They definitely had a lot more height. They definitely keyed on (Simkins). It was a different type of game. It just shows you you don't want to have only one player on your team that they can key on."
While the Hornets concentrated on keeping Simkins under wraps, Amherst point guard Jenni Orsund made Rosholt pay. The junior scored 16 points, including six on free throws in the fourth quarter to help the Falcons pull away.
A big factor in Amherst's 13-2 run to open the fourth quarter was its defense. Two Natasha Check free throws with 5:43 remaining were Rosholt's only points until Tami Scott hit a jumper with 1:11 left and the outcome already decided.
"They kept the defensive pressure and they went to the line a lot of times and we didn't," Rosholt coach Greg Vosz said.
Amherst finished the game 23-of-38 from the free throw line and Rosholt went to the line for only 12 attempts, connecting on seven.
"We just stepped up the pressure and mixed it up on them. We got some turnovers with our pressure defense," Haferbecker said.
Defense and turnovers were the name of the game in the first three quarters. Amherst jumped an early 8-2 lead only to have the Hornets rally with a 6-2 spurt to end the quarter and cut the Falcon lead to 10-8.
Amherst scored the first four points of the second quarter behind an Anne Stanislawski lay-up and a Jenny Dombrowski runner. But Rosholt roared back to tie it when two Jenna Eschenbach baskets off steals were sandwiched around an Amy Scott hoop.
"Their defense is strong," Vosz said. "We got most of our offense pushing the ball. I'm real happy with the way our defense has played."
The two teams battled back and forth until the Falcons started to pull away at the end of the third quarter. Jamie Krutza started the 6-0 run with a jumper from the right baseline. Dombrowski sank a pair of free throws and then Simkins went inside for two points.
Rosholt then scored two straight hoops, a Tami Scott jumper and a Kate Flick bunny. Dombrowski hit two more free throws to close the quarter, starting Amherst's fourth quarter march to the line.
Simkins joined Orsund in double figures with 14 points, with eight of them coming from the free throw line. She got her first points of the game on two free throws with 32 seconds left in the second quarter and didn't have a basket until there was 2:49 remaining in the third quarter. Simkins led Amherst with 13 rebounds.
Eschenbauch led Rosholt with 16 points and Tami Scott had eight.