Still unbeaten

NEW BREMEN - After Tuesday's win over New Bremen, Fort Loramie is 8-0 and outscoring opponents on average 72-17.

But Redskins coach Carla Siegel believes there is room for improvement.

"We need to work on focusing for 32 minutes," Siegel said.

New Bremen coach Chris Burden probably begs to differ.

Fort Loramie looked really, really, ridiculously good for the majority of the night, using its full-court pressure to create turnovers and points in a 75-28 victory at Cardinal Gymnasium.

"They move the ball well," Burden said. "They play defense well. They're long and lengthy. They go 10 deep. They're pretty good."

Kennedi Gephart converted a layup 5 seconds into the game after Fort Loramie won the tip-off, and that was a prelude for things to come.

The Redskins went on an 8-0 run in the first 2 minutes. They made seven of their first nine shots, finished the quarter 11-of-21 (including five 3-pointers), forced 12 New Bremen turnovers and led 29-8.

The Cardinals' turnover total was up to 23 by halftime, and Loramie's lead rose to 52-16. Eight different players scored in the half for the Redskins, who made 20-of-37 shot attempts. Taylor Ratermann had a half-high 14 points.

"I liked what I saw in the first half," Siegel said. "The first half was great. I loved our rotations. I love our intensity. I love how active our hands were. I loved how the girls were communicating and passing the ball. I thought we had New Bremen flustered and that was the game plan."

Ratermann made her fourth and fifth 3-point shots to start the second half, helping the Redskins raise their lead to 69-21.

"They can shoot the 3," Burden said. "It was pretty evident in the first quarter there. We changed our defenses. We went to our 1-3-1, and they continued to hit it from the outside."

Siegel was mainly upset about the fourth quarter, when her team took off the pressure defense, had issues running its half-court offense and was outscored 7-6. The 28 points allowed by the Redskins were a season-high.

"I'm not happy with those last 8 minutes at all," Siegel said. "I know that we weren't full-court pressing, which we're known for. I thought our half-court defense was still pretty good, but I'm not happy with our offense. I don't think our passes were crisp. We weren't rebounding. We weren't following through on our shots. So, there's a lot of things we can fix - that's why there's practice tomorrow."

Burden is eager for New Bremen's next practice, too.

The Cardinals coasted to a 6-1 start this season before Thursday's lopsided loss. The two teams could meet again in tournament.

"We've got to do a lot of things better," Burden said. "We've got to take care of the ball, for one. We've got to meet the pass. It starts with those things. Defensively, it's about just talking on defense and being more physical. We talked about one of the keys tonight being rebounding the basketball, and they rebound the basketball from all five spots. It's just a tough matchup. We'll take a look at some things and see how we can get better."

Ratermann scored a game-high 20 points for the Redskins. Marissa Meiring had 12 points and Dana Rose added 11.

Madison Cordonnier scored a team-high 13 points for New Bremen while adding seven rebounds. Elli Roetgerman tallied seven points.