The McLean Highlanders stepped on its home court against Marshall Saturday afternoon in hope of another district win to put them above 500 on the season and improve their playoff seed.
McLean sophomores Shellie Kaniut and Lisa Murphy dominated the perimeter and paint to do just that, controlling the floor and the scoreboard to defeat the Marshall Statesmen 54-28 on Saturday afternoon. The win improved McLean’s record to 8-7, allowing them to cross the 500 mark with two weeks to play in the regular season.
After a tight first quarter of play, the Highlanders outscored Marshall 17-8 in the second quarter behind precise perimeter shooting form Kaniut, who went six of nine for 12 points off the bench. Murphy dominated the paint for short jumpers and easy lay ups to go four of 6 for 12 points and six boards. She gave McLean the inside edge over the Statesmen (6-12) for most of the game.
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“The important thing was to stay concentrated, not give up points and box out constantly,” Murphy said. “Our height obviously helps but we tried to come out with aggression and dominate the boards.”
Marshall Head Coach Noel Klippenstein said the cancellations and time off would show the strength of the teams.
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“The whole county is not allowed to practice,” she said. “It boils it down to which teams can play and which teams need more practice and refinement.”
Mclean opened up a double digit lead off of quick transition points and forced Marshall to chase them the rest of the day.
Marshall did not go down easy, however. Madison O’Beirne and Anna Greenwood combined for 15 points on the afternoon. Rachel Waldron followed her strong performance against Stone Bridge last week with another stellar defensive game with three points, eight rebounds and two steals.
Klippenstein said she was impressed with McLean’s defense and it was hard to catch them.
“McLean’s defense stepped up a notch and created a lot of turnovers and that really created some separation between us,” Klippenstein said. “It sure is hard to get a lead when they have the ball.”
She added the team would continue to work on fundamentals and short-term goals for the remainder of the season.
Kaniut said she was happy with the victory and that her team likes to keep the game aggressive and play at a quick pace.
“We are a really athletic team and Marshall is pretty scrappy too,” she said. “We work on being aggressive, going after the ball, working on the fast break and that is pretty much our game.”
McLean head Coach Mike O’Brien said his team picked it up after the first quarter and he is proud he has such depth on his team.
“We have been working with her to be more aggressive and she is getting better and better with that,” he said. “We pressed more in the second quarter and I think they gave us some easy buckets to give us some separation. Once we had a little bit of a lead, the kids did a good job and we have a very deep team.”
McLean will play at home against Madison on Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. while Marshall plays at Langley on Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
