NORTH MANCHESTER - Mark Underwood didn't think his team was ready to play Monday night.
The 10th-year coach of Manchester High School's varsity girls basketball team said he was willing to take the blame for it.That being said, Underwood deserves credit for making adjustments that helped his team rally from a nine-point deficit in the first quarter to beat the visiting Cass Lady Kings 34-29.
"I think our defense was pretty good, but we didn't come ready to play," said Underwood. "I don't think we had the team ready to play, and I'll take the blame for that. We gave them some confidence early in the game, and we struggled the rest of the way. Credit Cass, they were a scrappy team."
The Lady Squires came out flat, making just 1 of 11 field goal attempts in the first quarter and trailed 13-4 after eight minutes of play.
Cass, on the other hand, was 6 of 10 from the field in the first quarter.
But after scoring 13 points in the first quarter, the Lady Kings scored just 16 points the rest of the game.
After making 60 percent of its shots in the opening frame, Cass was 3 of 22 from the field in the final 24 minutes of play.
"You gotta give Cass credit, they played hard," said Underwood, whose team improved to 3-2 while Cass fell to 1-5. "They came out ready to go and they got out to an early lead. We missed a lot of block-outs and made silly fouls. We didn't play our best tonight, but I'm proud of the girls. They found a way to win."
Manchester opened the second quarter with a 10-0 run and took its first lead of the game when Kayla Flack scored with 3:52 remaining in the half.
Cass scored the next bucket to take a 15-14 lead but never led again after falling behind 16-15.
The Lady Squires led 18-17 at halftime, 24-22 after three quarters of play and held a 30-25 advantage when Flack scored with 1:13 to play in the fourth.
Cass scored all seven of its fourth-quarter points from the free throw line.
"I was proud of the way we found a way to win against a scrappy, well-coached team," said Underwood. "We had several players do some positive things."
Flack led the Lady Squires with a game-high 10 points, while Hannah Little, Kaylee Watson and Autumn Brewer scored five points each and Meika Kennedy chipped in with four points.
Little led Manchester in rebounds with nine, while Flack pulled down six boards and Hanna Schmidt and Erika Milam grabbed five rebounds each.
Kourtney Mayhill led Cass with nine points, while Abby Ropes scored eight points and Brittany Cunningham and Breanne Robertson finished with four points each.
The Lady Squires are in action again Saturday when they open Three Rivers Conference play at Northfield.
"They're a very capable team," Underwood said of Northfield. "They've got talented players. They're young, but we've seen them enough in the conference, county tournament and sectional to know that if you're not ready to play it's going to be a long night."
