Gentry Girls Regain Focus, Top Lincoln

By Alex Abrams

Posted: November 25, 2009 at 5:16 a.m.

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GENTRY — After watching his players go through the motions in practice, Gentry girls basketball coach Tim Rippy had concerns about his team’s state of mind.

His fears came true — at least for a few minutes Tuesday night. Then things returned to normal.

After falling behind by 10 points in the opening minutes to Lincoln, Gentry attacked the basket, hustled for rebounds and picked up its intensity to hold on for a 50-40 nonconference win.

“We started off the game, I felt, very flat,” Rippy said. “I was concerned about it (Monday) in practice and (Tuesday) morning when we had our walk-through. I didn’t feel like we had the edge that we needed.”

Eventually, the Lady Pioneers (5-0) found that edge.

Tuesday marked the second time Gentry has knocked off Lincoln (2-4) during the early part of the season.

The Lady Pioneers also cruised to a 60-29 win in the championship game of the Pioneer Tipoff Classic.

“To play them twice in such a close period of time, sometimes you tend to lose focus,” Rippy said. “And I think that was evident (Tuesday night), and they jumped on us.”

Lincoln opened the game with a 14-4 run, but the Lady Wolves couldn’t keep up the pace or avoid committing turnovers during a sloppy second quarter that allowed Gentry to take its fi rst lead.

Forward Terra Jones had fi ve of her team-high 12 points during a nearly 4-minute stretch in which Gentry scored the fi rst nine points of the second quarter to take an 18-16 lead.

Lincoln, meanwhile, didn’t score its first points of the second quarter until Rashelle Goldman made a shot from underneath the basket with 1 minute, 33 seconds left in the fi rst half. It didn’t help that four-year starter Hanna Perkins got into early foul trouble.

Goldman scored a game-high 14 points for Lincoln.

“You got to be able to maintain your (substitutes). We’ve talked about it, and we didn’t,” Lincoln coach Deon Birkes said. “I thought we got better in the second half. You got to make some gimmies when we missed some easy ones.”

Gentry 63, Lincoln 58

BOYS — Forward Robbie White scored a game-high 20 points, and Gentry (5-0) made six free throws in the fi nal 42 seconds to hold on for the win and remain undefeated.

Lincoln (3-3) used a 12-2 run to cut a 42-31 deficit in the third quarter to 44-43 with 7:16 remaining, but that was as close as the Wolves got.

Forward Zach Turner scored 18 points for Lincoln, which got within two with 2:18 remaining. But Gentry, which had three players score in double figures, pulled away down the stretch.

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