Injuries strike two players as Tuscola girls' basketball takes first loss

Nov. 28—The Tuscola girls' basketball team picked up its first loss of the season after a hard-fought battle with Enka Tuesday night, falling 56-38.

"They played extremely hard. We got tired pretty quickly, but we fought till the buzzer went off. We played through whistles. We played through the physicality of the game," Tuscola Coach Heath Sutton said. "I can swallow a loss if we do everything in our power to give the max effort, which we did again."

Tuscola's night got off to a bad start just two minutes into the game when the injury bug bit the Mounties.

Sophomore Vesper Forbes went down early and limped off the court. She didn't return during the contest.

The loss was certainly felt by the Mountaineers. Forbes provides a dominant presence for Tuscola down low, as a rim defender, rebounder and scoring threat.

"We had to adjust our defense because we became smaller really quickly," Sutton said.

Tuscola is already not a very deep team — fielding just eight players on the varsity roster. Forbes's injury meant some young players got some additional minutes against Enka.

"I saw a lot of good things that happened," Sutton said. "A lot of young girls, 14-year-old freshmen with no varsity experience, got a lot of experience. Long-term, that's going to help us as we move along."

One of those freshmen was Samantha Horton, who had to step up massively in Forbes's absence. As a post, Horton was often covering the same space that the sophomore would have been in. She finished the night with a game-leading 10 rebounds.

"She was great," Sutton said. "She doesn't realize how good she's really going to be. It's just going to take her a year to get used to the varsity level. That's just a glimpse of what I feel like Sam's gonna give us in the future."

Freshman Gwyneth Schick also had a solid night defensively, despite not stuffing the stat sheet.

"She's just a game changer defensively," Sutton said. "Unfortunately, she was sick last night, and she played her guts out with a fever."

Schick also picked up a small injury late in the game, but seemed to be okay at the time.

As a whole, the Tuscola defense was solid all night. The Mountaineers held the Jets to just 33.3% shooting from the field and forced 18 turnovers. The defense was scrappy and played aggressively throughout the night, presenting a lot of problems for Enka.

"I felt like defensively, we really made it tough on them," Sutton said. "When we go back over there Tuesday night, we're going to make some adjustments, and we're going to we're going to stay in the fight."

In the second half, the Enka offense settled into the game. Part of that was the Tuscola defense getting tired, but part of that was just the Jets finding their groove.

"They kept doing what they do. They got open looks, and they began to knock them down in the second half. That was the difference in the game — they knocked some shots down, and we didn't," Sutton said.

That's something Sutton said his program can learn by playing these more experienced teams.

"Enka is very well-coached. They're an older team. They've been in the fight. They don't get nervous," Sutton said. "We can learn from that. We've got a young team. We're going to stay in the fight. We'll stay the course. We'll keep going back to the drawing board at practice and just keep doing what we do, and good things are going to happen for us."

Tuscola's offense struggled throughout the night, as can be expected at times with such a young team. The Mounties shot just 23% from the field and committed 24 turnovers. They also didn't hit a single three all night, going 0-12 from range.

"If we could just knock down a few perimeter shots, it would have been a completely different game. But that's the way the ball bounces," Sutton said.

Senior Kendall Williamson and junior Julia Wells were the bright spots of the offense, scoring 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Despite all of that, the Mounties still won the boards — out-rebounding the Jets 46-38. On top of Horton's 10 rebounds, Williamson and senior Avery Roten each grabbed nine and Wells nabbed eight.

"I really felt like watching film on Enka that if we could win the rebounding battle, that we would give ourselves a chance to win. And we did win the rebounding war. That's a testament to the girls. All the girls who played were just smashing the boards," Sutton said.

The Mountaineers drop to 2-1 with the loss, but have a chance to avenge it next Tuesday with a road trip to Enka. However, they will be without Forbes still. Sutton said he expects Forbes to be out at least a week or two — highlighting the conference opener against North Henderson on Dec. 12 as a targeted return.

"I need her to be healthy. She's an integral part of what we're doing," Sutton said. "She's got to get better for conference play, that's our goal."