By Jim Pruitt
The Chelsea (4-1, 8-3) girls basketball team‘s much anticipated rivalry game with Dexter (5-0, 10-1) lost its mojo early as the team was soundly beaten 59-21 on Jan. 22.
The game was over in the first quarter as the Dreadnaughts jumped out to 14-0 lead and ended the period up 22-2.
The game was expected to be a chess match as Dexter came in 12th in Class A in the Associated Press rankings. Chelsea meanwhile was ranked 10th in Class B. But Dexter’s coach, Mike Bavineau, said his team spends a lot of time in practice trying to run a championship defense and they did a good job in the first half, holding Chelsea to eight points.
“We have to make sure we are at a high intensity level,” Bavineau said. “When we are and we are engaged and we’re ready, we make a really good defense.
“I think that’s what you saw in the first quarter.”
The Bulldogs trailed 40-8 at the half and 51-13 after three.
No Chelsea player scored in double digits with Maggie Cole scoring seven points.
Chelsea coach Todd Blomquist faced up to the beating and praised Dexter.
“We played a really good basketball team,” Blomquist said. “I thought we were a little bit slow to get going, but they are a really good basketball team.”
Dexter played as expected, but the Bulldogs were “a half-step too slow” did not communicate, Blomquist said. That means that every time Chelsea made a little mistake, Dexter made them pay.
The Dreads pressured Chelsea off the screen and kept the ball out of McKenzie Mykala’s hands, limiting her to two points.
Blomquist told his team not to make a big deal out of the loss, it was only one game.
“It doesn’t matter if we lost by one or 101,” Blomquist said.
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