All about defense
CHERRY TWP — The way Ashley Brehm sees it, if the opponent can't score, they can't win.
“It's like I always tell the other girls,” said Brehm, a junior guard on the Moniteau girls basketball team. “If the other team doesn't score, all we have to do is score two points to win.”
While the Warriors' defense hasn't been
that dominant this season, they have made scoring points a chore for opposing teams.Through 10 games, Moniteau is giving up a mere 37 points per contest. Only once has a foe hit 50.“Relentlessness,” says Warriors' coach Mark Yeager when asked to give a reason why his team is so good on defense. “I love this team. Their effort is so unbelievable. They play hard all the time.”Perhaps the most relentless is Brehm, a 5-foot tall whirling dervish of a guard who has shut down some of the more skilled players in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference already this season.Brehm's defensive philosophy is simple.“I want the ball. It's mine,” she says. “No one is going to get past me. That's my goal when I'm out there.“I'm a point guard,” she added. “I know how it feels to get the ball taken away and to get stopped. I want my opponent to feel that as much as possible and want to stay away from me.”Her attitude has been contagious. Brehm's teammates have all bought into the defense-first mentality.Against a one-loss Clarion Wednesday night, the Warriors held the Bobcats 20 points below their season scoring average.Clarion ended up winning 37-31, but it was a struggle from the opening tip.“When you play defense the way we play defense, that hoop shrinks,” Yeager said. “When you play with that kind of heart, I'll take these kids any day.”The problem this season for Moniteau has been scoring.While the defense has kept the Warriors close in each of their five losses — four have come by a combined 16 points — the offense has been inconsistent.“It's a little frustrating,” said senior guard Amanda Sloan. “We've had some good nights, but we've also had some horrible ones. Even when we aren't hitting shots on offense, we all know we can still shut people down on defense.”Sloan believes if the shooting comes around even just a little, Moniteau is poised to make a big run in the second half of the season and perhaps in the playoffs.“We have the potential to go far,” Sloan said.Until that happens, though, the Warriors will have to rely on their defense.Their prowess at that end of the floor has come by no accident.Sloan said the team spends lots of time in practice on stopping the opponent.“We just have a lot of pride in our defense,” Sloan said. “We all love playing it. At practice we focus mainly on defense.”That suits Brehm just fine.“Honestly, I don't care if I score a point,” she said. “There's more to basketball than scoring. I think basketball is 95 percent defense. If you can stop the other team from scoring, you are going to win the game.”
NO HOOPS ALLOWEDThe Moniteau girls basketball team is giving up just 37 points per game this season. Following are the Warriors' opponents this season and what they scored against Moniteau.Kittanning 43Clarion 50Venango Catholic 40Brookville 44Laurel 36Wilmington 38Redbank Valley 36Karns City 28West Forest 23Clarion 37
