TROY >> Waterford Mott coach Michelle Sklar called time-out in the third quarter to settle her girls down and get them to focus.
Perfect timing. The Corsairs were down 7 points at the time. They battled back and finished with a 37-34 win over Troy on Tuesday night.
“I had to get on my kids, get them to be aggressive and improve our defense,” Sklar said.”We weren’t getting in the gaps on defense, we were giving up too much penetration and too many second shots. It was a matter of focus and bringing them back in. We’ve got a young team, we’re going to make mistakes at times, just reminded them of the key important things.”
They listened.
PHOTOS FROM MOTT’S WIN OVER TROY
Mott (2-0) was down 24-17 at the time but went on an 8-0 run before Troy (2-1) hit a last-second basket at the end of the third to go up 26-25.
“It’s a game of runs, we got up on them 7 in the third, but credit Mott they hit some shots, they hit a 3-pointer out of the time-out that really, in my opinion, swung the momentum and we weren’t able to seize the lead after that,” Troy coach Simon Bato said.
That 3-pointer by senior guard Emily Huff gave Mott a 29-26 lead. Then senior guard D’Mahrya Clayton hit another 3-pointer to give Mott a 32-28 lead. They never fell behind again.
“We were kind of happy to get out of the first half and have it be close (Troy led 16-15.). The second half they jumped on us a little bit that’s not how we wanted to start the third quarter,” Sklar said. “Luckily we did a good job of coming back, hitting shots, we did a great job of running some of our set plays and scoring on them. I think that was the difference, we executed some of our set plays in the second half.”
Huff led the Corsairs with 16 points while Clayton and freshman guard Makayla Fuerst each pitched in with six points.
Sophomore Athena Samson led the Colts with 16 points.
“Sampson has had a good season for us so far. She gives us a spark on both ends of the floor,” Bato said. “Danika Murray, one of our senior leaders, has been a spark, she brings a lot of energy on both ends of the floor.”
