Press, ‘fire’ help Richmond make surge in tourney loss
HIGGINSVILLE – Richmond varsity girls basketball coach Kaylee Vantrump reached back into her playbook during the Spartans’ Dec. 8 meeting with Lafayette County of Higginsville in the fifth-place game of the Husker Classic.
Based on what Vantrump saw during the fourth quarter of Richmond’s 33-24 loss in the east gym on the Lafayette County C-1 campus, she might reach back into her playbook again.
With Richmond trailing 26-9 after three quarters, the second-year head coach brought back a pressure defense she had used last season, she said. Her girls responded by outscoring Lafayette County 15-7 the final quarter. And unofficially, they forced the host school to commit 10 turnovers that quarter.
“We haven’t really practiced it a whole lot, but our main press wasn’t working, we weren’t denying the ball very well; and so, I just tried to mix it up, and they did a pretty good job at it,” Vantrump said.
Teammates Candice Claypole and Paige Logsdon liked running the resurrected press.
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