ELYRIA — Intensity can be a friend or an enemy.
One minute you have it, the next you don’t. That pretty much summed up Saturday’s consolation game at the Lorain County Holiday Tournament at Elyria High.
Keystone picked up its intensity just when the Vermilion Sailors lost theirs to come away with a 39-35 victory. The Wildcats evened their mark at 1-1 while Vermilion slipped to 0-2 on the young season.
“Two games in a row this early in the season, I guess those things can happen,” Keystone coach Scott Terry said. “There were a lot of things we weren’t doing well in the first half and a lot of them were just hustle items. That laziness on defense affected our offense.”
Keystone didn’t play well at all the first half — particularly the second quarter when it managed to score just two points in falling behind, 26-14, at halftime. The Wildcats were just 1-of-8 from the field the second quarter.
All that changed in the second half as Keystone scored the first eight points after intermission to whittle into Vermilion’s advantage. It was the Sailors who went flat and stone cold, scoring only nine points after the break.
“We came out very slow in the third quarter,” Vermilion coach Anjie Caffarel said. “We did a lot of standing. (Keystone) got a little more aggressive in the second half and we ended up standing and waiting for the opportunities we had in the first half, but they weren’t there because (Keystone) picked up the D (defense) a little bit.”
“There’s only one way when you’re down and come back to win a basketball game and that’s to pick things up on the defensive end,” Terry said. “It wasn’t anything special. It was just being willing to get up in a girls face a little bit more, deny that next pass, all that fundamental stuff that we didn’t do in the first half.”
When Keystone’s Taylor Bell threw in a 3-pointer with 2:22 left in the game, the Wildcats took the lead for the first time since early in the game and iced it down the stretch thanks to some key plays and rebounds from Erin Gallagher.
Gallagher would be the first to admit the gumption just wasn’t there early on, but when the game got tight, the competitive juices took over.
“I just came out flat I guess,” Gallagher said. “It’s not like I didn’t want to play. We realized out high post and low post was working out better than our outside shots the second half. Everyone just kept pitching in.”
Gallagher hustled after a couple of late rebounds off missed free throws that led to more free throws. Keystone missed only two of the 15 foul shots it took, but Gallagher managed to gain possession on both — the last a tip back to Chloe Irish in the waning seconds to preserve the win.
Irish led the Wildcats with 18 points and Bell added 15. Anne Hamilton led the Sailors with 14 points but had only one of her four 3-pointers in the second half.
“Chloe played very hard,” Terry said. “She was our offense but that’s what we expect out of a senior. She steps up and had a good game.”

Keystone 39, Vermilion 35

KEYSTONE (39): Becky Nielsen 0-0-0, Kimberly Kokoski 0-0-0, Taylor Bell 3-7-15, Chloe Irish 7-4-18, Erin Gallagher 1-2-4, Karli Sturgill 1-0-2, Casidy Gregory 0-0-0, Molly Cornish 0-0-0, Katie Zelinka 0-0-0, Emily Nagy 0-0-0. Totals 12-13-39.
VERMILION (35): Alex Shuster 1-2-4, Julia Clark 1-0-2, Katie Karres 3-0-6, Katie Swinehart 1-5-7, Anne Hamilton 5-0-14, Katelyn Peterson 1-0-2, Andrea Rini 0-0-0, Sarah Besida 0-0-0. Totals 12-7-35.
Keystone    12    2    10    15    —    39
Vermilion     12    14    5    4    —    35
Three-point goals: Keystone 2-8 (Bell 2). Vermilion 4-15 (Hamilton 4). Field Goals: Keystone 12-44 (27 percent). Vermilion 12-43 (28 percent). Free Throws: Keystone 13-15 (87 percent). Vermilion 7-8 (87.5 percent). Rebounds: Keystone 35 (Gallagher 11). Vermilion 33 (Hamilton 8)). Turnovers: Keystone 16, Vermilion 16. Fouls: Keystone 14. Vermilion 14. Fouled Out: Swinehart.
 

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