NORTH MANCHESTER - The Manchester High School girls basketball team erased the taste of a 40-point loss Saturday night with a 45-35 home win over Fort Wayne Blackhawk Monday.
Fresh off a 63-23 thrashing at the hands of the Class 2A No. 5 Wabash Lady Apaches over the weekend, the Lady Squires responded with an out-of-conference victory, putting the players in a little bit better mood."Realistically, we were probably a little unsure of ourselves after our last game," Manchester coach Mark Underwood said. "We didn't show up to play in that game, and we may have had a little carry over."
The hangover was evident early, as Blackhawk (4-10) put Manchester (9-7) down 10-4 at the end of the first quarter.
The offense, however, picked up a little bit for the home team, which used a 17-4 run between the second and third quarters to build a 27-18 lead.
On the night, Manchester hit just 14 of its 48 shots, but the Lady Squires were able to overcome that 29-percent shooting.
"Our shooting was poor, but if you're playing hard defense, rebounding and doing some other things pretty well, then maybe you can overcome that," Underwood said. "That's what happened tonight."
Manchester's top scorer was senior Jessica Bedke, who scored 16 points, and had seven of those coming in the final 39 seconds as she went 7 of 8 from the free throw line.
Those free throws proved to be important after Blackhawk senior Casey Cooke hit a three-pointer with 2:13 to play, completing an 8-0 run that cut Manchester's lead to 36-35.
"I told the girls in the timeout that it doesn't matter if you win by one point or 10," Underwood said. "We let them creep back into the game."
Bedke's free throws iced the game, helping put Manchester back on the winning track after a two-game skid.
"Down the stretch, we did the things we needed to do to win," Underwood said.
Along with Bedke's points, Manchester also got nine points from freshman Kayla Flack and seven out of sophomore Hanna Schmidt. Flack and sophomore Hannah Little tied for a game-high eight rebounds and junior Erika Milam posted three steals.
Defensively, Manchester's biggest concern was Blackhawk junior Allison Kauffman, who scored 29 points in a 50-48 Squires win last season.
This time around, Kauffman scored just seven points, but did grab eight rebounds, the same amount as junior Jessica Walters.
"During the entire game, we were pretty strong on the defensive end," Underwood said. "The job we did on Kauffman really helped us get a win tonight. She's a great player. I know she's had 30-plus point games this year, and last year, she had 29 on us."
Manchester jumps back into Three Rivers Conference play Saturday at Rochester, with the junior varsity game beginning at 6:15 p.m.
