Kirtland’s defense set up its offense in a 47-33 win over Oberlin on Saturday.
The Hornets, who won their second straight to improve to 8-5 overall, recorded 14 steals in the game. Those extra offensive opportunities helped Taylor Somodji post a team-high 15 points while Samantha Achauer added 10 and Sydney Snyder and Grace Powers both scored six.
“Defensively we had a pretty good ball game,” said Kirtland coach Bob Bell. “It was just kind of an overall well played, hard fought game.”
Oberlin had a young team but the Phoenix owned a decisive size advantage.
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“They’ve got a lot of sophomores and I think they have one senior but they are big, considerably bigger than us,” Bell said. “They played all zone and I thought for the most part when we showed patience we did a good job attacking the zone.”
The Hornets worked hard to set up their shots.
That led to a strong offensive output for the Hornets.
Somodji, who is second on the team to Achauer with 8.5 points per game, attacked the zone and found a lot of success in the paint.
If Somodji wasn’t scoring off her mid-range jumper she was getting easy put backs or earning free throws.
“She was doing a nice job of hitting shots against a 2-3 zone,” Bell said. “It was her ball movement and just getting that medium range jump shot and she did get a couple offensive rebounds put back up. She had a good overall offensive game.”
Claire Neibecker led the Hornets with nine rebounds.
She was part of a group of Hornets that made it very difficult for the Phoenix to operate their offense. Achauer and Somodji both had four steals and Powers and Snyder had three each.
“Claire has been playing very good defense inside,” Bell said. “Grace Powers, when we would bring the press in a little bit in three quarter court and half court, she played well. She gets quite a few steals.”
The Hornets will need a similar effort this week when they host Cuyahoga Heights on Wednesday and Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division rival Berkshire on Saturday.
