KEOKUK – Fort Madison Head Coach Landon Bentley was kicking around the second quarter of Tuesday night’s 52-29 loss to Keokuk in his head for a bit after the game.
The loss drops the Lady Hounds to 6-2 in the Southeast Conference, a full two-games behind the Chiefs, and 11-4 overall. It was the second loss in three days for Fort Madison.
The two teams battled to an 8-8 tie in the first quarter, but Keokuk’s full-court pressure took its toll in the second quarter where they outscored Fort Madison 14-0. The Lady Hounds managed just six shots from the field in the quarter and missed them all. The constant pressure forced three consecutive turnovers midway through the period, but the Chiefs only managed three points off the miscues.
However, the Bloodhounds shooting went cold and only pulled down one offensive rebound in the set. Keokuk shot a cool 4-of-14 in the half but got to the freethrow line 10 times in the quarter to two for Fort Madison.
Bentley said the energy disappeared from his team in the second period.
“We talked about that at halftime, about bringing the energy back and playing our game again. I thought we did a fine job with their press – it didn’t affect us that badly except in that second quarter,” Bentley said.
“We broke the press and then we tried to play one-on-one and we got away from what was working in the first quarter. They go on a 14-0 run, and basketball is a game of runs, and that was a big one. So we gotta find ways to weather that.”
Fort Madison would get buckets from Irelynd Sargent and Hadley Wolfe to get things going in the third period. The Hounds would get within 11 on another Wolfe bucket with about four minutes left in the period. Keokuk senior Makenna Altgilbers hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push Keokuk’s lead back to 15 headed into the final period.
Wolfe would start the fourth with a made freethrow and Dayonna Davis scored on a put-back on Wolfe’s second from the stripe to cut Keokuk’s lead to a dozen. Wolfe would score again on the Lady Hounds’ next possession to make it a 10-point game, but then the Chiefs scored 12 unanswered to make it 45-23.
Sargent would end the run with a bucket followed by a full time-out by Bentley, but sophomore Kendra Boatman would hit a three out of the timeout for Keokuk. The two teams went into foul mode the rest of the way, with Fort Madison hitting just three of eight down the stretch. Keokuk hit 3 of 6 in the final few minutes and their fouling kept Fort Madison from getting any traction from the floor.
“Keokuk’s a great team. They’re a solid basketball team and, when they got that energy, they kind of ran away with it. We tried to battle back,” he said.
“At halftime I said we have to find a way to believe. I felt like not everyone on our team, not all 15 girls, believed we could win. They wanted to win, but there’s a big difference.
Bentley was content to have the Lady Hounds sit in the half-court defense and not put any pressure on the Chiefs until they were down by almost 20 and were forced to pick up the pace.
“Watching film, I thought they struggled a bit more running their half-court offense. We didn’t want that to be a foot race. That was the game plan,” he said.
The Hounds ran into foul trouble early with Halle Menke picking up her fourth foul about two minutes into the second half and was left on the bench until about 3 minutes left in the game.
Bentley said having to play without her in the paint was part of the problem in the second and third periods.
Wolfe led Fort Madison with 10 points. Davis had seven, while Sargent and Jenkins each added four.
The Hounds travel to Washington on Friday night for another Southeast Conference matchup.
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