Girls basketball: Dixon pulls away from St. Francis in the second half

After struggling to make shots in the first half, a deep 3-pointer right before halftime seemed to open the basket for Dixon.

Morgan Hargrave’s 3 with two seconds left in the second quarter put the Duchesses in front to stay, and they came out hot in the third quarter to pull away from St. Francis for a 48-31 win Saturday at Lancaster Gym.

“It was definitely nice to see it go in,” Hargrave said. “The first half was a little rough for me — and we were all missing shots — so definitely to see that last shot go in and then go into halftime gave us that confidence to come out strong in the second half.”

Tenley Glock hit a layup with 1:39 left in the first half to give St. Francis a 16-15 lead. The Spartans then had another possession after a defensive stop, but couldn’t run out the clock. Dixon (16-2) took advantage as Abby Hicks found Hargrave open from deep on the wing for 3 — and a 2-point lead heading into the locker room.

“We gave them a good first half, but that 3 at the end really hurt,” St. Francis coach Jeff Gerdeman said. “We had the ball and we should’ve run it down and held it for one shot — that’s on me — instead of giving them that last shot. Now they’re up 18-16 instead of us being up 16-15, and then in the third quarter, they just came out on fire.”

Reese Dambman sandwiched a pair of layups around a Hargrave 3 in the first 2:15 of the third, then Kiley Gaither and Hargrave knocked down 3s on consecutive possessions after a Glock layup to stretch the lead to 31-18. Addy Lohse hit a 3 between layups by Hargrave and Dambman to push the lead to 20, then Dambman buried a 3 at the buzzer to make it 41-18 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I think we came out very slow (to start the game), and we definitely knew we needed to come out with more energy (after halftime),” Dambman said. “It was great to see a couple of shots go down. Morgan was on fire, so that was awesome to see her get hot in the third, and then I hit a few shots and everyone else just chipped in and we all made it happen. I think just moving the ball well and finding that open player was the key today, and we came out strong (in the third quarter) and put the game away.”

The Duchesses hit five 3s and shot 56% from the field in the third quarter after managing just 21% in the first half, including 13% from deep. They outscored St. Francis 23-2 in the period.

“We knew that first half wasn’t our best — we seemed tired — and we talked in the locker room and said, ‘OK, we need to pick up the energy and intensity,’ and we came out and did just that,” Hargrave said. “It’s so nice to have people who can come off the bench and bring a spark for us. That was big for us today.”

Courtny Bridgeforth scored nine of her team-high 11 points in the fourth quarter for St. Francis (7-8), but Dixon got buckets from Hicks and Lohse to keep the Spartans at arm’s length.

Dambman finished with 19 points, two assists and two steals and Hargrave had 11 points and five rebounds. Lohse added five points and seven rebounds, Hicks had four points, seven rebounds and three assists and Gaither grabbed six rebounds to go with her 3-pointer. Ahmyrie McGowan dished five assists and nabbed five steals, Presley Lappin grabbed three rebounds and Grace Ackert scored a basket and nabbed two rebounds and two steals while playing aggressive defense off the bench for Dixon.

“We’re working on getting everybody to know their role and contribute in some way, so having players be able to come in off the bench and contribute is huge for us,” Dambman said. “We love to have people do that for us.”

Bridgeforth had five rebounds and two assists to go with her 11 points and Alyssa Freeman (8 rebounds) and Ashley Powell (10 rebounds) both scored five points for the Spartans. Glock (4 assists) and Hannah Grivetti (3 rebounds, 3 assists) both chipped in four points.

“Dixon’s a very good team. They’re a top-ranked team for a reason: they play hard, they shoot lights out. So I’m glad we hung with them for a half. I would’ve liked to have given them a full game, but it wasn’t meant to be today,” Gerdeman said. “We did fight back a little in the fourth quarter, showed some heart.

“I want to play teams like this. It may be a loss, but it’s just going to make us better come postseason.”