The Milan News-Leader
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Reds still winless
Milan at 'low point' after 10-point home loss to Flat Rock
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: January 24, 2008
If there's any consolation for the Milan girls' basketball team after the most difficult week yet in what has been a difficult season, it's that there's nowhere to go but up.
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The Big Reds trailed by as many as 21 in a 43-33 home loss to Flat Rock Friday night before falling on the road to 7-1 Ida by a score of 60-23 Monday. The losses dropped Milan to 0-13 on the season.
The loss to the Bluestreaks was expected, but head coach Jeff Davis and the Big Reds had high hopes of breaking into the win column in front of a big crowd for Milan's "Coming Home" night against Flat Rock, making the loss to the Rams doubly disappointing.
"Friday was by far the low point of the season," Davis said Tuesday, "and when you're 0-13, that's saying something. The girls were extremely frustrated after the game. They were emotional. But we're certainly not going to quit."
The loss led to some tough discussions between the team and Davis early this week. They didn't work miracles for the trip to Ida, but Davis said they should pay dividends down the road.
"Playing a state-ranked team Monday wasn't the best timing. There wasn't time to fix things," he said. "But everyone learned some things, myself included. We had a very good practice today. It's a fresh start for us emotionally."
As was the case in their previous game against Riverview, Milan started well against Flat Rock. A three-pointer by Ashley Agar with 1:17 left in the first quarter gave the Big Reds a 6-4 lead and the game was tied entering the second quarter.
But the next two quarters belonged to the visitors. The Rams opened the second on a 16-4 run as Milan hit just one field goal, a three-pointer by Lindsey Lammers in her return from a scary knee injury early this season, over the first seven minutes of the period.
Another Agar three helped Milan close to 23-13 at halftime, but the Rams would score the first 11 points of the second half to take their largest lead at 34-13 and all but put the game away.
A Brittany Auten three-pointer at the third quarter cut the lead to 36-20 and Milan pulled within 39-26 after a pair of Devon Cosner free throws midway through the fourth. But any hope of a miracle comeback ended when Cosner missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3:42 to play and the Big Reds scored just two points over the next three minutes.
"We've had some first-quarter struggles, fixed that, and now it's second-quarter struggles," Davis said. "We're going alongfine, then we have a couple of turnovers, give up four or six points, and things unravel for us. We've got to do a better job of maintaining our composure.
"We make a run every game. We made one this game, in the fourth quarter, to take us from 20 down to 10 down. If we'd hung in there, we'd have gone from 10 down to tied."
Stephanie Roe and Agar led the Big Reds on the scoresheet with six points each. Cosner scored four with Kasey Splitt, Allie McAfee, Lani Ernst, Auten, and Lammers all adding three points each and Sarah Heath two. McAfee led the Big Reds with eight rebounds while Roe grabbed five. Milan did shoot well from the free throw line (10-of-14) and behind the three-point line (5-of-13, 38 percent).
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