Turnover prone Lady Tigers drop opener to St. Pius X

Thursday, November 27, 2014
Brent Bartlett

Nevada Daily Mail

Facing a West Central Conference foe to open the season, the Nevada Lady Tigers basketball squad fell to the St. Pius X Warriors 45-30 Tuesday on the road, in a game marred by turnovers.

"We had 18 turnovers in the first half that pretty much kept us out of our offense," Nevada head coach Brent Bartlett said. "They sped us up and we didn't make the great pass when we should have.

"They made us look a little slow and we didn't set good screens or rebound very well."

Bartlett said his squad made a run in the third quarter.

"We got within 8 points," he said. "We just couldn't get anything else kind of going our way. It was two pretty good teams playing. We just made too many mistakes."

Despite the sloppy play, Bartlett did take away positives from the game.

"We did compete and play hard," he said. "They're one of the better team's we will play all year."

Bartlett said he has identified some areas he would like to see his team improve in.

"One is rebounding," he said. Two, is setting screens... on a person," Bartlett said with a chuckle. And we need to shoot free throws better. We missed 10 free throws.

Bartlett is confident his players will improve going forward.

"We're just going to keep improving, getting better," he said. "I love coaching this group. They hate to lose, and they're going to do what it takes to get better."

Bartlett said the Warriors came in with a good game plan, and were able to slow down 6-foot-2 senior center Rilie Good.

"Their game plan was to be very physical with all of us," he said. "And they were pushing her (Good) everywhere. It took her a quarter and a half to get used to the physical play. But I felt it was that way for our guards too."

For Nevada, senior forward Megan Payne led the team with 9 points, while Good chipped in with 7 points and senior guard Morgan McNeley added 5.

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