GIRLS BASKETBALL Bad fourth quarter keys loss to DSHA

Wauwatosa East dropped a 53-30 decision to Divine Savior Holy Angels on Friday at home, in a game that was closer than the score indicated, said coach Rob Hamill.

"Against DSHA in the middle of the third quarter it was a six-point game," Hamill said. "The final score does not show it, but it was a battle and a close game."

Hamill then talked about the Red Raiders' improved defense.

"At the start of the season one of our primary goals was to become difficult to beat - meaning difficult to score against because of playing good defense. While it has been an up-and-down journey, we think we are pretty close to being there."

The Dashers led 16-8 after the first quarter, but the Red Raiders were more competitive in the second period (11-7), leading 27-15 at halftime. Tosa East then outscored DSHA, 9-8, in the third period to cut the lead to 35-24.

The Dashers then tripled the score in the fourth quarter (18-6) to win going away.

"The bottom line is that DSHA has traditionally been a very balanced team and that became the story," Hamill said. "While we took away some of what has led to their success this season they found other options that were effective. They have many good shooters and they were good at finding them. I think that was essentially the story. They found the open shooter and they nailed them."

Freshman sensation Arike Ogunbowale (19.2 points average) led the way with 16 points and Shaylon Reardon added 15.

"On our side offensively it was nice to get a spark off the bench from Deniesha Kinnebrew, who ended up being our leading scorer (11 points)," Hamill said. "One positive thus far is that we have gotten meaningful contributions from multiple players all year - Friday was another part of this pattern."

Katie Salmon scored seven points, down from her 10.4 average.

"While we still need to take more shots and make the easy ones more consistently - we shot only 28 percent from 2-point range," Hamill said. "We feel we are on the right track overall and good things are going to come our way as we enter the second half of the season."