Held scoreless in the first quarter, the Chanute Blue Comets girls lost to the Pittsburg Purple Dragons, 45-32, on Friday night.
“We can’t start that slowly,” Chanute head coach Dustin Fox said. “When you dig yourself a hole like that, it’s an uphill battle for the rest of the game. We were disjointed and didn’t have the energy we needed. It was good to see we didn’t quit and did well in the fourth quarter. But we’ve got to play better early to give ourselves a chance in the SEK.”
Chanute was limited to 25%
Sean Frye | Tribune photo
Grace Luebbering (25) of the Chanute Blue Comets lifts up for a shot during a loss to the Pittsburg Purple Dragons at Chanute High School.
shooting from the field while Pittsburg was a blistering 55.6%.
“We just seemed to be disjointed with a lot of turnovers,” Fox said. “When we got open shots, we didn’t make them. When you’re missing, that adds a little pressure. We let our misses affect our effort and it snowballed from there.”
The Blue Comets icy approach from the field prevented the guard-oriented squad from applying its fullcourt press.
“We don’t have a lot of size,” Fox said. “It needs to be a 94-foot game for us and it wasn’t. It was a halfcourt game. Missing shots does that. We’ve got to put the ball in the basket to set up what we do best.”
Grace Luebbering led Chanute with 10 points. McKenzie English paced Pittsburg with 20.
Chanute committed 20 turnovers in the loss as the Purple Dragons’ 1-2-2 zone stifled the Blue Comets.
“There’s times we struggle against pressure, but there wasn’t a ton of that tonight,” Fox said. “We had a ton of unforced turnovers tonight. We’ll turn it over against a press sometimes. But we had so many turnovers against a team sitting in a zone. We’ve just go to play better, but the girls know that.”
Chanute fell to 5-3 overall and 1-2 in SEK League play with the loss.
Up next
Chanute heads to Coffeyville on Tuesday.
“They’ve got one of the best players in the league and a couple of good guards,” Fox said. “They’ve had some success and they’re figuring things out. They play hard. So we’ll have to play better than we did tonight.”
