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Zimpleman adds 14, Douglass 9
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CHALMERS — Caston girls basketball coach Josh Douglass thought host Frontier played harder than his team Thursday.
But in the end, it was Caston who played better.
Isabel Scales made sure of it, outscoring the entire Lady Falcon team with 24 points as the Lady Comets prevailed 53-20 over their sectional rivals Thursday.
Addison Zimpleman added 14 points, and Madi Douglass had nine for Caston, who improved to 13-0. Ranked No. 2 in Class 1A, Caston is one of just six undefeated teams left in the state.
Haley Jay led Frontier (1-11) with eight points.
“I give credit to Frontier actually,” coach Douglass said. “I felt like Frontier played a lot harder than we did tonight. And that’s what I told the girls. They played extremely hard all game, and we played hard in moments. So give credit to Frontier for coming out and playing really hard trying to defend their home court tonight.”
Caston beat Frontier for the fifth consecutive
meeting. Next up is a meeting with Maconaquah at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Peru in the first round of the Miami County Invitational. Caston is the three-time defending champion of that tournament.
Caston came into the game ranked No. 1 in the state in defensive scoring average at 26.7 ppg, and they improved upon that mark, holding Frontier to eight field goals and limiting them to four free throw attempts. Caston also forced 28 Frontier turnovers.
Caston used a man-to-man, a 1-3-1 zone and a 2-2-1 pressing defense.
“We wanted to get up in them, pressure them, make them have turnovers,” Scales said. “They have a good guard that can handle the ball, but if we got pressure on them, we got them to turn it over.”
Douglass wanted the defenders to switch on all screens when they were in their man-to-man.
“I felt like we were half a step slow,” Douglass said. “Of course, we were wanting to switch everything tonight, which we haven’t done this year. So we changed things up. We ran a 2-2-1, which we haven’t done this year. So I mean I threw different things at our own kids tonight a little bit just to mix things up to work on. I thought ball pressure was good, and then we fell asleep on the back side to where we got caught standing and watching is what I kept telling them. So those are things we’ve got to work on obviously.”
Caston went on a 16-0 run covering the first and second quarters to build a 23-8 lead.
The run started with a Scales spinning bank shot that turned into a 3-point play, a Macee Hinderlider steal and layup, a Scales cutting layup off a Hinderlider assist and an Alexa Finke free throw.
That made it 15-8 after one quarter.
A Scales steal and layup, a Finke bucket off an Annie Harsh assist, a Finke free throw and a Madi Douglass 3-pointer in the second quarter made it 23-8.
They also had a 13-0 run covering the third and fourth quarters as the lead reached as high as 36. That included a Scales buzzer beater from the right baseline at the end of the third quarter and a Scales corner trey in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Scales said he agreed with coach Douglass’ assessment as to how hard Frontier played, and she added that Frontier was physical. Scales also said that Caston needs to expect that type of effort from all of their opponents.
Meanwhile, Caston was aggressive against Frontier’s 2-3 zone.
“Their middle was open,” Scales said. “I don’t think we attacked as much as we could tonight, but once we did hit it, we got our shots that we wanted.”
Zimpleman sandwiched two buckets in the paint around two free throws.
“It’s the one thing we need to work on,” coach Douglass said. “We are impatient. We want to take first option every single time because we think that’s what it’s supposed to be, and we told them if we get two to three reverses, you’re going to see a whole much more wide open (court) and even better shots that are there.”
That led to the last three minutes played with a running clock per the IHSAA Mercy Rule.
Caston 53, Frontier 20
CASTON (53) (13-0)
Macee Hinderlider 1 0-0 2, Addison Zimpleman 3 7-8 14, Madi Douglass 4 0-0 9, Isabel Scales 11 1-2 24, Alexa Finke 1 2-6 4, Camila Hernandez-Rios 0 0-0 0, Natalie Warner 0 0-0 0, Olivia Thomas 0 0-0 0, Kaitie Hutsell 0 0-0 0, Annie Harsh 0 0-0 0, Grace Wright 0 0-0 0, Kylee Logan 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 20 10-16 53
FRONTIER (20) (1-11)
Haley Jay 3 0-2 8, Kendall Bridwell 0 0-0 0, Katie Kennedy 1 0-0 2, Madyson Mears 2 1-2 5, Ashlyn Minniear 1 0-0 3, Summer Kremer 1 0-0 2, Emelie Kruger 0 0-0 0, Grayce Noe 0 0-0 0, Gabi Noe 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 8 1-4 20
Three-point field goals:
Caston 3 (Scales, Zimpleman, Douglass),
Frontier 3 (Jay 2, Minniear)
Total fouls: Caston 14, Frontier 16
Turnovers: Caston 12, Frontier 28
Score by quarters
Caston 15 14 13 11 – 53
Frontier 8 4 5 3 – 20
