HSPN East Coast Tourney - Pool Round 1

NW Ohio Cougars 38 New Life Storm 29

In the opening round of the HSPN East Coast Championship tournament, the NLC Storm faced off with the Northwest Ohio Cougars, who entered the game with a record of 28-2. The game was a low-scoring, physical defensive struggle. The Storm started out moving the ball well and showing good patience offensively, and defensively Ele'Jah and Emily got in the passing lanes and grabbed a number of steals. The lead see-sawed back and forth most of the first half, before a 3-pointer from the corner by Tamara gave the Storm a 16-15 halftime lead. The Cougars made some defensive adjustments after the half and came out aggressively trapping the corners and wings out of their zone. This led to Storm turnovers on the first 5 possessions of the 2nd half. The Cougars' zone was also collapsing well to the inside, and the Storm was only able to get off one FG attempt inside the 3-pt line the entire 3rd quarter. They continued to defend well, though, and entered the 4th quarter only down 23-20. In the 4th quarter the Storm defense tired a bit, and the Cougars were able to get enough separation to knock down several mid-range jump-shots to pull out to a 9-point lead going into the last 2 minutes of the game. Emily nailed a 3 to give the Storm some life down the stretch, but a 5-pt margin was as close as the Storm could get. On the game, Shelby led the Storm with 10 points and 13 rebounds, while Ele'Jah grabbed 4 steals.