Dispatch Account of Alleman Game

By Terry Duckett, tduckett@qconline.com

GALESBURG — Sinking a national-record 397 shots from 3-point range was last year's bread and butter for the Galesburg girls' basketball team. This season, defense is what the Silver Streaks are hanging their hat on, and the Alleman Pioneers found that out the hard way Thursday evening when they visited John Thiel Gymnasium. Turnovers ended up being the Pioneers' undoing in a key mid-season Western Big 6 Conference showdown. Galesburg forced Alleman into 33 miscues, seven of which fueled the Streaks' fire in the fourth quarter as they broke open a six-point game to earn a 75-56 victory. "We turned the ball over a lot, and they capitalized on them," said Alleman coach Jay Hatch, whose 9-5 club slips to 3-2 in the Big 6 and falls a half-game behind co-leaders Moline and Rock Island. "We didn't stick with what we had to do, and it hurt us. Getting outscored 24-11 in the fourth quarter isn't going to get it done very often." With the Streaks (9-2, 3-2) getting their hands on the ball to spoil numerous Pioneer possessions in the fourth quarter, their offense indeed cashed in, hitting on 11 of 16 shots in the final eight minutes to take control after holding a 51-45 lead entering the period. "We were turning it over way too much in the backcourt, and you're not going to beat a fifth-grade team doing that," said Hatch. "They got seven or eight points when we couldn't get the ball past half-court." Hatch didn't look at Thursday's game as a golden opportunity for his team to take sole possession of the Big 6 lead and earn a win at a traditionally tough place to play, but merely as one to win, a job that didn't get done. "They executed far better than we did," Hatch said. Down 35-32 at halftime after trailing by as much as nine in the second quarter, the Pioneers kept clawing their way back, eventually tying the score at 41-41 on a Zoe Kelso bucket with 4:41 left in the third. However, their bid to take their first lead since the opening period was blunted as Galesburg ended the third with a 10-4 run, then opened the fourth with an 8-2 sprint. While Kelso posted a double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds, with teammates Cierra Davis and Anne Bohnert adding 17 and 15 points, respectively, the Silver Streaks countered with a defense that produced 17 steals, four by Sharron Diggins, who also had a team-best 18 points. "Not only did we create the turnovers, we also got easy points off of steals," said Galesburg coach Evan Massey, who also got 14 points and seven boards from Sadee Hamilton and 14 points from Jessica Lieber. "That's how we're different this year from last year. Our defense creates points."