Columbian pulls away from Willard late

TIFFIN — The little things hurt Willard late.Tied with host Tiffin Columbian after three quarters, the Crimson Flashes needed to keep doing what they were doing.But, a lack of focus and a big start to the quarter by Columbian's Dallas Poll led to Willard dropping a 42-33 non-league contest to the Tornadoes on Tuesday."Effort and energy," said Willard coach Barry Pfahl of what made the difference in the fourth quarter. "Right in front of our bench, we had two balls go out of bounds that we didn't make a play on and should have."I don't know how many Poll had not counting the free throw line going into the fourth quarter, but I know she went to work in the fourth quarter."Natalie Slone scored just before the third quarter buzzer to bring the Flashes (6-11) even at 25 after three quarters. But with the next eight minutes deciding the game, Poll took over with the first three buckets of the quarter. Even after Reese Bedingfield made two free throws for Willard, Poll hit a baseline jumper before Mackenzie Davis picked a steal and scored to give Columbian (7-10) a 35-27 lead.Scores by Abbie Felske and Lexi Smith furthered the margin as Willard didn't hit a field goal in the quarter until Bedingfield's basket with 47 seconds to go. The Flashes were also done in by 27 turnovers."I probably watched them play that 1-2-2 zone five or six games," Pfahl said. "I thought we did a good job against it. We had to be aggressive and hard-nosed against it."Willard trailed 8-5 after one quarter and were down by five points on four different occasions in the second quarter. A tally by Syana Sivongak at the halftime buzzer brought the Flashes within 16-13 at the break."(Sivongsak) is a great player," TC coach Jaycie Foos said. "I don't know a ton about Willard, but from what I watched, I could tell she is a great player. She's their leader. She does a great job of organizing them. I knew the more we got it out of her hand and kept it out of her hand, the better we would be."Willard carried that momentum into the third quarter as Sivongsak hit a 3 to open the scoring and tie the game. Later, Makinley Schaffer grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to tie the game at 18 before Sivongsak's basket gave Willard it's first lead of the game with 5:59 left in the third quarter."In defense, I still have a lot of young kids," Pfahl said. "Sy had not played since the Bellevue game. We didn't know how that would go. I thought she did a real nice job."Poll and Lexi Smith each scored 15 points for Columbian."At halftime, we were losing the rebounding battle," Foos said. "Our goal is to always take care of all the hustle stats - rebounds, steals, assists, and things like that. I challenged my girls to go and close that gap."Bedingfield topped Willard with 13 points and nine rebounds off the bench while Sivongsak added 11 points. Schaffer grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds."We thought we had the game plan," Pfahl said. "We thought we had the offense to get some shots. We would get some shots, but we just had too many turnovers. A part of that has to do with their 1-2-2 zone. They're long and relatively quick."WILLARD (6-11)Syana Sivongsak 4-1—11, Makinley Schaffer 2-0—4, Moriah Slone 1-1—3, Reese Bedingfield 5-3—13, Natalie Slone 1-0—2. TOTALS 13-5—33.COLUMBIAN (7-10)Mackenzie Davis 1-2—4, Lexi Smith 5-4—15, Maggie Rannigan 1-0—2, Dallas Poll 5-5—15, Mariam Al-Zakwani 1-2—4, Abbie Felske 1-0—2. TOTALS 14-13—42.Willard 5 8 12 8 — 33Columbian 8 8 9 17 — 423-point FGs: (W) Sivongsa 2; (TC) Smith.