The date and location changed, but the result was similar.
The Springfield Lady Spartans fell to the Coventry Lady Comets (6-6) Jan. 23 for the second time this season, 49-34.
The Spartans (1-12) fell to the Comets their fourth game Dec 12, in a 50-33 home loss. This time they were able to score an additional point and hold Coventry to one less, but the young Lady Spartans still struggled against their more experienced neighboring conference opponents.
“Coventry’s a tough team. But we need a lot of work getting the ball inside,” Springfield head coach Dave Chaffman said. “We have eight players hurt right now and it’s showing.”
The Spartans struggled early, but nearly kept the halftime score in single digits until Coventry senior Carly Fazio stepped in. Fazio scored with four seconds remaining, then quickly intercepted the inbounds class and put it in to give the Comets a 31-20 lead as the buzzer sounded.
The Spartans would never cut it to single digits again, as the Comets outscored them 9-5 in the third quarter and went on a 12-0 run that covered the final three minutes of the third quarter and the first half of the fourth, putting Coventry up by 20.
The Comets had a more balanced attack in their second match-up of the season. Senior Maddie Klemp scored 20 points in Coventry’s first defeat of the Spartans, but four different Comets scored in the fourth quarter of their second match-up, and seven in the second half—none more than twice.
Springfield finally got their offense moving late in the fourth quarter, piecing together an 8-0 run.
“We were reversing the ball more,” Chaffman said. “Our guards were looking inside instead of moving. We talked about that at halftime.”
Marissa Lucco made the Spartans’ first basket of the quarter with 3:43 to play, and Lindsay Kirkland stole the ball and laid it up a minute later. Renee Manges scored at the 1:46 mark, then converted a steal into a basket 20 seconds later to cut Coventry’s lead to 47-33.
With just over a minute remaining, it was obviously too late for the Spartans to get back in it.
“We’ve been working a lot on our shooting, but we still have a way to go,” Chaffman said. “We played great games against Timken and Field. It’s just not showing in the win column yet. But we’ll get there.”
Springfield’s junior varsity team’s progress has shown in the win column, as the JV Spartans defeated Coventry prior to the game, and hold on to a winning record.
“We worked on shooting and closing out in the JV game,” Chaffman said. “We still have a lot of young players [on the varsity team]. We’ll get there.”
