TRENTON – If your team is having a tough night on the offensive side of the court, your best shot at winning your game is on the other end of the floor.
That was exactly the case on Thursday evening during some girls basketball action in the Downriver League when Trenton welcomed in Allen Park. It was each team’s first league outing since before the holiday break.After a very – very – slow start offensively that continued all evening long, it was the hometown Trojans topping the visiting Jags by a football-esque score of 21-13.
“Thank god we can play defense,” Trenton coach Janet Haddad said. “The fact that we held a team to 13 – and really they had that crazy shot at the end of the half, so we held them to 10.
“I’ve been saying since the start of the year that defense is kind of what I preach to my kids,” Hadded added. “The fact that we held them to 10 (in the first half) is awesome.”
It was a slow night for both sides, who were tied just 2-2 after the opening eight minutes before each tripled their scoring in the second quarter. The “crazy shot” came from Allen Park’s Mallory Hool, who sunk a three-pointer at the buzzer to give her team a 9-8 advantage at the intermission.
That halftime score ended up being the only lead of the night for the Jags. And it was rather short-lived after anAlencia Mace triple of her own to start the second half reclaimed the lead for Trenton, one they never let up down the stretch.
“I’m glad they kept shooting,” Haddad said after her team switched up offenses in the second half. “They have to keep shooting and they have to not be afraid to take shots and see what happens. They threw the right passes and we were getting different looks, so that was good.
“We were taking closer shots and we made some layups, which is what we needed to do.”
To help the win, the Trojans were also nearly flawless at the free throw line, finishing the night 6-for-8. Kelsey Clemons was responsible for half of the team’s attempts, converting on three of them.
“The free throw line and we made those layups,” Haddad said. “If we didn’t have those two things we wouldn’t have been able to win.”
At night’s end, Trenton’s Mace led all scorers with 9 points. Gigi Tavarez scored almost half of Allen Park’s points and finished the night with six.
The Trojans’ efforts were not anything that the Jags were not prepared for, but head coach Dave Arnold said his team simply did not execute their own game plan.
“They didn’t do anything that surprised us,” he said. “We had a game plan in place for what we needed to do offensively and defensively, but if you have a game plan, you still have to execute it.”
Heading into Thursday’s affair, Arnold was pleased with his team’s most recent efforts, albeit a 59-37 loss against traditional Division 4 power Petersburg Summerfield two nights prior.
“I thought we made some strides the last few games heading into this, but then we had the stuff we did here,” he said. “We’re young. I’ve never had a young team get this frazzled, but we’ll just keep working at it.”
Trenton has already nearly tripled their win total from all of last year, one where Haddad took over during the team’s state playoff game. Back for her first full year, she says the team is turning things around and having fun.
“Right now we’re laughing at practice,” she said. “If we can keep having fun, I think we’ll have some success on the court.”
That’s exactly what Haddad is trying to do, as she works to rebuild a program that is not far removed from a seven-year stretch where they won five DRL crowns.
“It takes time to rebuild a program,” Haddad said. “We’re going to take some lumps and have nights like this where we can’t make shots. So we’re trying to take the positives and build off of those each night.”
UP NEXT
Trenton (5-2, 3-2) now carries a three-game win streak into a quick turnaround road trip vs non-conference foe Milan on Friday, Jan 9.
Meanwhile, things don’t slow down for Allen Park (2-4, 2-2 DRL), who plays four games in a seven-day span next week, the first three of which will be at home. It starts with a battle vs reigning DRL champion Brownstown Woodhaven on Jan 13 before hosting Southgate Anderson city rival Allen Park Inter-City Baptist on Jan 16 and 17, respectively.
“It’s not like we have a ton of practice right now to fix all this,” Arnold said. “So we’re just going to deal with it and go from there.”
Photo gallery of Allen Park vs Trenton in a Downriver League girls hoops battle
