SMN duo burns South girls

Olathe South held every Shawnee Mission North player not named Mary Pat Specht or Brianna Kulas to a total of seven points Thursday. But that wasn't good enough on a night when Specht burned the Falcons for 22 points from the perimeter and Kulas added a strong 17 inside.

The twosome led SM North to a 46-41 win on South's home floor and continued their stellar seasons. Specht entered winter break fifth in the Sunflower League in scoring while Kulas ranked 12th.

"We knew exactly who their scorers were and we knew exactly what we wanted to do to take stuff away from them," South coach Steve Ingram said. "We just didn't execute very well defensively."

Natalie Knight led the Falcons with 13 points and four assists and Brooke Rinehart added 11 points and four rebounds despite playing through foul trouble most of the game.

But no two Falcons could match the Specht/Kulas Show. The duo scored all of SM North's points in the first half, as the Indians took a 26-20 lead.

Specht came out firing from the start, hitting two 3-pointers and a long jumper to score eight of SM North's first 10 points. She finished the first half with 18 points and missed just two shots in the process.

The Indians pushed the lead to eight twice late in the half, but South answered back with two big buckets — a steal and lay-up by Knight and a driving runner by Ebonee Bell just before the halftime horn.

Knight made four steals in the first half but got a different defensive assignment at halftime. Ingram decided she'd be more valuable shadowing Specht than shooting the passing lanes.

"He just told me I was guarding her and I was OK with that," Knight said. "I knew we just couldn't let her shoot again. We had to pressure her and make it hard for her to score."

With some help from her teammates, Knight held Specht to just four points in the second half. But the Falcons still struggled to close the gap.

Kulas took up the scoring slack in the third quarter and the Indians took their largest lead of the game on their first possession of the fourth. South was in a zone defense as SM North inbounded the ball and no one picked up Specht, who drained a long jumper for her final points and a 39-27 Indian lead.

"We know their out-of-bounds plays," Ingram said. "We've walked through that stuff. But how many times did we lose her just in the first half? We know that she's the shooter, we know we need to cover her and we know where she's going to be most of the time, but we just didn't execute. It was our first game back from break and we looked like we hadn't played in three weeks."

With their backs firmly against the wall, though, the Falcons made one final run.

Kelsey Balcom, who had missed her first six shots and had just two points going into the fourth quarter, came through when the Falcons needed her. She began driving to the hoop and crashing the boards aggressively and earned several trips to the free-throw line.

It was a much-needed change of tactics on a night when South shot 2-of-14 from 3-point range.

"We have good shooters and every shot looks good to us some times," Ingram said. "We have a tendency not to attack the basket as much as we're able to and we've just got to learn to do that more. Kelsey understands that."

Behind Balcom's offensive aggression and more ball-pressure defensively, the Falcons chipped away at the lead throughout the final five minutes. But the closest they got was when Knight hit a desperation 3 to cut it to 44-41 with five seconds on the clock.

After that Specht's sister, Susan, calmly made two free throws to ice it. But Knight said the comeback gave the Falcons a glimmer of confidence on an otherwise dreary night.

"When we put out minds to it and we play with good intensity we can do anything," she said.

Balcom and Navia Palu led the Falcons with six rebounds each and Ebonee Bell tied Knight for the team lead with four assists.

SHAWNEE MISSION NORTH 46, OLATHE SOUTH 41

SM North (4-2): Jodi Young 0-1 0-1 0, Mary Pat Specht 8-13 3-3 22, Storm Simons 0-3 0-0 0, Susan Specht 1-4 3-4 5, Brianna Kulas 6-11 5-7 17, Maddie Ricci 0-0 0-0 0, Jazmin Richmond 0-1 0-0 0, Michelle Counts 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 16-35 11-15 46.

Olathe South (5-2): Navia Palu 0-1 0-0 0, Kelsey Balcom 2-10 4-6 6, Ebonee Bell 3-8 0-0 6, Brooke Rinehart 3-5 5-7 11, Natalie Knight 5-9 1-3 13, Hillery Samskey 0-0 0-0 0, Shelby Johnston 1-3 1-1 3. Totals 14-36 11-17 41.

SMN 10 16 11 9 — 46

OS 9 11 7 14 — 41

Three-pointers: SMN 3-9 (M. Specht 3-5, S. Specht 0-2, Simons 0-1, Young 0-1), OS 2-14 (Knight 2-5, Bell 0-4, Balcom 0-3, Palu 0-1, Johnston 0-1). Rebounds: SMN 24 (Kulas 7), OS 21 (Balcom, Palu 6). Assists: SMN 11 (S. Specht 6), OS 10 (Bell, Knight 4). Turnovers: SMN 13, OS 6.