DANVILLE — Experience matters in the game of basketball.
Often times, the team with the most battle-tested players – those who have been there and done that – is the one that prevails in late-game situations, when tension crescendos and instinct takes over.
That certainly proved true in Danville on Wednesday night.
The home Blue Devils, with a bevy of upperclassmen back from last year’s Sweet 16 team, pulled away late from the young and hungry Fredericktown Freddies, 66-58.
Fredericktown took its first and only lead of the game late in the third quarter, but Danville closed on a 22-12 run to send the visitors packing.
“They kind of know (how) we work in a lot of situations,” Danville head coach Matt Proper said of his upperclassmen. “They’ve been in a lot of situations, whether it’s just a KMAC game or a non-conference game, or a big tournament game. So we kind of rely on that experience – the game-situation awareness and that IQ – to get us through some of that.”
Fredericktown took the lead on a transition lay-in from sophomore Cally Carpenter with 1:52 left in the third quarter.
That’s when Danville dug its heels in.
The Blue Devils closed the quarter on a 4-0 run, as junior Grace Gronberg nailed two free throws and senior Jaylyn Workman converted a lay-in to put Danville back on top.
The fourth quarter was all Blue Devils.
Danville turned up the heat defensively, forcing Fredericktown into turnovers and tough shots. And on the offensive end, the Blue Devils attacked the rim at will, scoring all 18 of their fourth-quarter points either on lay-ups or free-throws.
“Our team, we’ve been together for so long,” junior guard Kylee Hess said. “So we kind of know how to mesh, and when it comes time to start playing our game and (how) not let the other team get back.”
Hess scored 8 of her 14 points in the game’s final stanza. She attacked the hoop relentlessly, using her skill and athleticism to finish through the trees.
Hess, a key role player during her first two high school seasons, said she knew heading into the fourth quarter that she needed to flip the switch.
“We have had some really close games,” Hess said. “So I knew that this game was gonna be the same, and that we just needed to step up and we needed to close it out.”
Fredericktown, which had spent the middle quarters working to erase an 11-point first-quarter deficit, ran out of gas late. Carpenter scored 8 of her team’s 12 points in the period, but it wasn’t enough to hang with the experienced Blue Devils.
“I’m gonna have to stat it out, but it looked to me like we had a stretch there with a lot of turnovers. It seemed like it was a couple possessions in a row (where) we had opportunities and we turned the ball over,” Fredericktown head coach Tim Maceyko said.
“And again, I think (with our) youth and inexperience, and we weren’t getting a lot of good motion moving. We had a lot of standing around. … Cally picked up the ball and nobody’s moving and back-cutting, and I think that really hurt us there in the fourth quarter especially.”
Danville jumped out to an 11-0 lead to start the game, using its cutthroat, man-to-man ball pressure to force turnovers and capitalize on the other end.
But the Freddies fought back. They appeared cool, calm and collected after a mid-quarter timeout from Maceyko, limiting turnovers and narrowing the margin to 19-10 by the end of the period.
The Freddies also began capitalizing on their size advantage in the half-court (their roster features four players 5-foot-10 or taller), scoring on post-ups and put-backs to shrink the deficit.
This trend continued in the second quarter.
Danville junior Ella Proper made her presence felt, knocking down two pull-up jumpers and a lay-in, and junior Broegan Staats added 8 points of her own, drilling two wing threes and a mid-range two.
But Fredericktown continued to dominate the paint. The Freddies’ three bigs – junior Jill Bouton, freshman Ella Bouton and freshman Mya Bryant – combined to score 15 of the team’s 21 points in the period.
Fredericktown narrowed the deficit to 29-27 with 2:02 left until halftime.
“I think our post game – obviously, you know, we have some height – and so we finally started to hit some cutters through the lane and we hit some over-the-top passes because they were fronting everything (in the post), so that allowed us to go over the top a few times,” Maceyko said.
“A couple of those passes got away from us, but that’s where we were going, that was our game plan, and it was working there. And we got our transition game going in the second quarter.”
Danville closed the half on a 8-4 run. But they led by just 6 points at intermission, 37-31, after dominating early.
“It seemed like we got a little tired for whatever reason. We stopped playing some defense,” Proper said. “I thought we were standing up a little too much and gave up on some plays.”
Fredericktown continued to close the gap in the third quarter. The visitors stayed apace before breaking through late in the period, using a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game.
But the Blue Devils took it from there.
Danville’s upperclassmen flipped the switch and dominated down the stretch, while Fredericktown ran out of gas.
“You know, in tight games, what do we need to do? We need a bucket. We need to run some time. Defensively, what do we need to do? And I thought they did a good job of handling that,” Matt Proper said of his team’s leaders.
“I thought we got up 10 and then we kind of maintained that. We had a few lapses here on defense, but overall, I thought it was pretty good (finish).”
Danville improved to 3-3 (2-1 in the Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference) with the win. Fredericktown dropped to 2-4 (0-3) with the loss.
Staats led the Blue Devils in scoring with 16 points, including four triples. Hess tallied 14 points, while Proper and Workman both added 12 for the home team.
Carpenter scored a game-high 26 points for Fredericktown. She was flanked by Jill and Ella Bouton, who each tallied 10 points for the visitors.
Fredericktown has dealt with its fair share of injury issues so far this season. Senior Grace Sipes and sophomore Kennedy Algire, both starters, were out Wednesday with ailments.
“Right now, we have no seniors available to us. We have one junior and the rest are either freshmen or sophomores. So we have a very young crew that’s learning on the fly,” said Maceyko, who started three freshman against Danville.
“A few of these girls are getting varsity minutes who otherwise, in a normal season, would probably still be just playing full-time JV. And they’re stepping up – I mean, they’re doing what they can. They’re just young. We’re just young.”
The Freddies have proven competitive so far this season, despite their inexperience. They lost to defending KMAC champion Cardington by 5 in overtime on Nov. 30 before falling to East Knox by 10 on Dec. 3.
“All the games have been close, other than East Knox,” Maceyko said. “It’s been like this all year for us, where we do good things, but just not quite enough to finish it.”
Wednesday served as another close loss for Fredericktown. Maceyko believes his team is right on the doorstep of KMAC success.
“That’s exactly what I was talking about in the locker room. I just told ’em, ‘You’re so close,'” Maceyko said. “We’re very close. We just have to gain that experience and keep the faith because we could easily have won these games and we’re losing them.
“And so just the fact that you’re there – I just don’t want them to start thinking, ‘Oh, we can’t do it,’ when they can do it. We just need more time.”
Danville, meanwhile, rebounded from a 2-point loss to Cardington on Saturday with a win Wednesday. Proper said afterwards the game should be instructive moving forward – particularly the middle quarters, where Fredericktown outscored Danville 36-29.
“It’s just the toughness factor (that) we need to (step) up a little bit. So we’ll work on some of that at practice,” Proper said. “We’ll watch some film – you know, the film never lies – so we’ll see ourselves a little bit. That’s what we talked about. We’ve just gotta be more consistent in everything we do. We just have too many fluxes in what we’re doing … ups and downs.
“I feel like that’s kind of where we’re starting strong and we’re finishing strong, so we’ve gotta piece together the middle part of it, bridge it together. (It’s) part of the learning process, I guess.”
Danville lost several multi-year starters to graduation last year, including Brooklynn Hess, Camie Newbold and Alenah Boeshart. But plenty of upperclassmen have returned this season, including those who stepped up Wednesday night.
Proper said it has been – and will continue to be – a process, getting this year’s starters adjusted to new roles. But he believes doing so will be key to the team’s success down the road.
“When you have a tough senior class (with) players you rely on, players that kind of carry you – when you look over and they’re gone, it kind of scares (you), especially with a younger team. A lot of our returning players weren’t juniors, they were sophomores last year,” Proper said.
“So when (the outgoing seniors) are gone, they’re kind of like, not sure what to do at times. So I expect to see some of those ups and downs, as they start to be more confident. ‘OK. They’re not here anymore. So what do I need to do? What do I expect out of my teammates? What are our roles?’ You know, we talk about that a lot: be predictable to each other. ‘What can I expect from you? What can I expect from you? What can I expect from you? And what can I expect from myself, game-in and game-out?’
“We’re still learning that. That’ll probably be a good part of the season. But that’s kind of – you know, it’s sometimes rewarding to see that growth, too. I mean, I think it’s fun to be a part of that, too. So it was a good game – a good KMAC game – and we’ll be playing (again) soon.”
