Lady Hounds held to 23 in loss to Keokuk

KEOKUK — Landon Bentley wants his players to know they have the green light to shoot.
After Fort Madison’s 38-23 loss to Keokuk on Thursday night, it was a point the Bloodhounds’ coach wanted to reinforce with the postseason less than a week away.
“I think offensively, we've got to find some confidence in ourselves,” Bentley said. “I told them if a coach gave me the green light in high school, I might have been shooting from the volleyball line, for better or for worse. Make me wean you in a little, rather than push you to shoot more.”
The Bloodhounds (13-6 overall, 7-3 Southeast Conference) scored 11 first-quarter points, but only three in the second quarter and two in the third.
“What it goes back to is our offense,” Bentley said. “Nobody wanted to be that person to take the shot. We’ve got to be confident to take the shots that we take in practice.”
The Bloodhounds had a chance to pull away early. The Chiefs (17-4, 8-2) didn’t score for the first 4 ½ minutes of the game and didn’t have a field goal over the first 5 ½ minutes, but Fort Madison only scored five points in that stretch.
It also hurt Fort Madison’s offense when leading scorer Dayonna Davis picked up two fouls in those first 5 ½ minutes.
“She’s a competitor,” Bentley said. “I knew I could trust her, so I put her back in in the second quarter.”
Bentley was pleased with Fort Madison’s defense — Keokuk had scored 68 points on the Bloodhounds in their first matchup this season. Fort Madison held Keokuk’s Kendal Boatman, who averages 21.4 points per game, to 10 points. Camryn Atterberg also had 10 for the Chiefs.
“Shout out to my assistant coaches,” Bentley said. “Carrie Burken, she helped scout from the last game. She saw a couple of adjustments. I'm not going to say on record, but I really liked them, and I think we're going to use those going forward. And Kent Bailey, he's always got the right thing to say. He's a big proponent in the press break. Obviously, he knows about 1,000 of them, so he’s just finding those openings in the presses.”
Halle Menke led Fort Madison with six points.
The Bloodhounds open regional play next Wednesday at Burlington.
“The message that was preached was our season is not over,” Bentley said. “You’ve got to find that fire, that hunger, to really try to make a postseason run. I believe that this team we just played, us, and Burlington, we might not always get the most credit from the state, but I think any one of us three teams could get out of this (regional). I really believe that and I hope it's us.”