Girls basketball: Dixon uses big second half to top La Salle-Peru, improve to 9-0

DIXON – It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

Dixon embodied that mantra Thursday night at Lancaster Gym against La Salle-Peru.

After coughing up seven turnovers and falling behind by five points in the first quarter, the Duchesses (9-0) completely reversed course over the next three quarters.

With a second-quarter shutout, Dixon took a three-point halftime lead. After completely dominating the second half, they finished a 46-25 nonconference win over the Cavaliers (4-3).

“We knew we had to pick up our energy,” Dixon sophomore guard Morgan Hargrave said about the second quarter. “We kind of started slow, and we knew if we picked up our energy and worked more together, worked as a team, we could get back in it.”

The first quarter was back and forth up to an 8-8 tie. L-P scored the final five points on a left-wing 3 by senior Kaylee Abens and a steal and fast-break layup by senior Addison Duttlinger.

But the Cavaliers’ 13-8 first-quarter lead was short-lived.

Dixon turned the tide with an 8-0 run in the second quarter. Sophomore Reese Dambman went coast-to-coast off a strip-steal to make it a three-point game with 6:40 remaining. Senior Katie Drew and junior forward Hallie Williamson each went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line over the next minute-and-a-half to cut it to one point.

Freshman Ahmyrie McGowan put the Duchesses up 14-13 with a putback with 4:42 to go, and from there, they never trailed again.

“I think it was a timeout, because we took it as, ‘Calm down, let’s restart, let’s build our energy, let’s get out there, let’s do what we can,’ ” Williamson said about the second-quarter momentum swing. “And I think it was that timeout that really helped us get out on top.”

Hargrave capped the first-half scoring with a layup off a nice bounce pass from senior forward Jessie Pitman around the four-minute mark, and the Duchesses took a 16-13 lead into the half.

Dixon grabbed 12 steals before halftime, applying consistent defensive pressure on the L-P ball-handlers. Dixon then outscored L-P 30-12 in the second half, led by an 18-point outburst from Williamson.

The Cavaliers kept it competitive early in the third quarter, drawing within 18-15 on a Duttlinger layup in the first 45 seconds, then 21-19 on senior Bailey Pode’s jump hook at the six-minute mark.

But Dixon only ramped it up from there, scoring nine unanswered points for a comfortable 30-19 lead.

Williamson made a layup off an inbounds pass from Drew and converted the second of four three-point plays in the second half for a 24-19 Dixon lead.

Williamson, Hargrave and Pitman then made consecutive layups, Williamson followed with a free throw, and junior forward Makenzie Toms went 2-for-2 at the line to expand the lead to 33-19 with just over a minute left.

“In the first half we kept losing the ball, so I knew in the second half I had to be aggressive when I go up,” Williamson said. “And the and-1′s were the and-1′s.”

L-P senior Jasmine Garman made a putback at the buzzer to make it a 12-point game at the end of the third quarter.

The Cavaliers drew within 33-24 in the first 38 seconds of the fourth quarter on junior Emma Garretson’s right-corner 3, but the Duchesses refused to let up.

Drew drove the lane and finished a tough contact layup to regain a double-digit lead at 35-24, then Williamson converted two more three-point plays over the last 6:05 and buried a top-of-the-key 3 to conclude the scoring.

“I think we played well against the man-to-man. They didn’t switch, so a couple of the ball screens, they got caught on. We had a couple of quick buckets,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said about the first-quarter success. “The 1-2-2 press, we knew it was coming. They had us size-wise. We’re playing a smaller lineup. Their size kind of took over down low. We probably got outrebounded by 20.

“The juniors haven’t played this level. Nobody was up last year, so when you’ve got five girls that have varsity experience and you play a team that’s undefeated that has some big girls, they had some size, they had a couple shooters, they’re undefeated for a reason.”

Williamson led the Duchesses with 21 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two blocks; Hargrave totaled nine points, four rebounds and three steals; Pitman contributed five points, eight rebounds and two blocks; and Drew supplied three points, seven rebounds and three assists.

McGowan tallied two points, seven rebounds, four steals and a block, and Dambman chipped in four points and four steals for Dixon.

Duttlinger finished with 10 points and three steals; Pode compiled six points, three rebounds and three steals; and Abens added five points and three steals for the Cavaliers.