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Case of the Shanks leads Comets in opener
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
NEVADA, Mo. -- To have the shanks as a golfer or a kicker in football is never a good thing. To have the Shanks as a two-year basketball school in Nevada, that's a whole other story.
Sophomore Kerri Shanks scored all 13 of her points in the second half, including three key 3-pointers, as the Comets overcame a sloppy second half to beat the St. Mary Spires' junior varsity squad Wednesday, 69-58.
"Kerri had some big second half points," Cottey head coach Dave Ketterman said. "She's a money player, she always has been."
After being held scoreless in the first half, Shanks hit her first trey of the night to get the Comets on the board in the second half, after St. Mary had cut the lead to 37-35 with about 18 minutes to go.
Two minutes later Shanks hit another from downtown, part of a 7-0 run that allowed Cottey to take a 47-38 advantage with 15 minutes left.
Her final three of the night probably put the final nail in the coffin as the Comets (1-0) closed a 12-2 run after the Spires had tied the game at 49. It had been the first tie of the contest since the score was 2-2 less than a minute into the game.
The big baskets helped the Comets overcome 10 second-half turnovers, and an abysmal night at the free-throw line.
Cottey went 18 of 32 at the stripe, a 56 percent clip, and that was after Lacy Leonard hit her final two of the game and Ashleigh Houdyshell added a pair, both coming in the final minute of the contest with the game in hand.
Ketterman said the free throws would be a point of emphasis during practice today, and that he has a routine that he will restart to try and help the situation.
"One of the things we did last year that we haven't done this year, every Friday we came in and shot 100 free throws," Ketterman said. "We're going to get back to that."
The Comets don't have any down time before their next two games, as they host the Comet Shootout Friday and Saturday. The Comets play the Mid-America Nazarene junior varsity Friday, then take on Brown Mackie Saturday.
Wednesday's opener didn't start out poorly, as the Comets rode the inside duo of Leonard and Sara Sellin en route to a 10-2 lead.
Leonard, a 2005 Nevada High School graduate, scored 12 of her team-high 19 points in the first half. Four of those came in the opening run.
Sellin, a freshman from Ängelholm, Sweden, also had four in the early spurt, on her way to 15 first half points. Sellin finished with 17 in the contest.
Cottey led by as many as 13 in the first half, owning a 31-18 edge with 5:58 to play before intermission.
The Comets let up from there, as the inexperience in playing together caught up to Cottey.
Ketterman rotated players frequently, using his five returning starters with three newcomers and the players didn't always mesh well. That led to turnovers, running into each other on the offensive end and missed rebounds because players were unknowingly fighting teammates for the ball.
The sloppy play continued through most of the second half but the Comets simply had too much firepower for the Spires.
"I think we probably created most of our mistakes tonight, ourselves," Ketterman said. "There was no problem with effort. Once the girls get used to where they are on the floor and who they're playing with, that will get much better."