After dropping three of four games earlier this month, the girls basketball team (9-11) has strung together two consecutive wins, the latest a 38-28 victory over Dover High (4-18) on Thursday night in Dover.
The defense was tested by Dover's size and physical play, but the Dodgers passed the test as they held Dover to just six points in the second and third quarters combined.
After a slow start Madison rallied to put together a 15-1 run that consumed the entire second quarter, thanks in large part to senior guard Nikki Caruso and freshman forward Margy Taylor.
“We’re feeling pretty good, we’re feeling pretty confident,” said Caruso, who finished the game with a team high 13 points to go along with three rebounds and one assist. “It’s just good to get another two wins under our belt and not have to go into a practice with a loss.”
Taylor, who played much of the first half for injured starter Mackenzie Ellis, turned in one of her most complete games of the season with eight points, seven rebounds, three blocks, two steals and an assist.
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With Madison in control from the second quarter on, Dover's frustrations became noticeable as the already physical play became even more tenacious, including pushing, shoving, hard fouling, and even a few punches thrown.
“It was pretty intense,” Caruso said. “We already knew coming into this game it was going to be pretty physical, but it got really intense. It was actually pretty scary.”
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“We fought hard on the boards, I think all of the girls did,” Madison head coach Stephen Finkelstein said. “It just kind of became almost like a rugby match out there.”
But with Madison aiming for its ninth win of 2011, Finkelstein made sure that his team kept its composure.
“I just told the girls, every time they throw punches, you just have to withstand it and push back,” Finkelstein explained. “Especially under the boards, that’s where it was most physical so you have to give people like Tori [Ellis], Nikki, Mackenzie and Margy a lot of credit.”
Mackenzie Ellis, who battled through injury to help the Madison defense for much of the second half, explained the difficulties playing in a came of this physicality.
“You really don’t,” Ellis said of dealing with the Dover aggressiveness, “you kind of just have to take it and not react.”
“We knew they had a good shooter in [Andrea Morales] and we tried to not let her get the ball and pressure her when she did get the ball,” she added.
The strategy worked to perfection on a day when Madison's shooting was spotty from the field.
“I think we got off a lot of great shots, we talked about being aggressive offensively from the start and I thought we did that,” Finkelstein said. “In the second quarter I thought we played great defense, we held them [to one point]. It’s just a shame that our shots didn’t fall.”
“We’ve been working on passing and looking for good shots, because in the past, we just kind of chucked up any shots that we had,” added Caruso, who was eight-of-eight from the free throw line. “We’re being more patient and definitely waiting for that good shot.”
