Published: 1/13/2023 9:53:33 PM
BOW – It can be hard to find things to improve on when you’re 5-0 and have an average margin of victory of almost 26 points, but Bow girls’ basketball coach Phil Davis knew his offense could be better.
On Friday, it was – for the most part – in the Falcons’ 58-31 victory over Milford.
The Falcons (6-0) started slow but led 17-5 after the first quarter and 34-15 at the half, punctuated by a 9-0 run in the second. The lead continued to widen in the third period when senior Alex Larrabee and junior Juliette Tarsa each tallied eight points.
Against a Milford team that entered the game with a similarly strong resume, the Falcons put the clamps down early.
“The girls ran great tonight, played great defense tonight as usual,” Davis said. “Juliette caught a little fire from the outside; Alex was inside finishing her shots. Bella (LaPerle) and Sidney (Roberge) do what they do: They play great defense, and they hit some key shots early on to make sure that we kept our momentum going.”
Larrabee and Tarsa led all scorers in the game with 20 points apiece. The two of them combined outscored the Spartans (6-2).
In Bow’s first five games, the Falcons tended to struggle against the 2-3 zone.
Against Milford, they moved the ball around the floor with more confidence and more crispness.
“All those things we practice: ball fakes, skip passes, bounce passes, we didn’t execute it that well when we’ve seen zone,” Davis said. “But tonight, boy, we executed it perfectly. We’re getting better at it.”
The thought of the Falcons becoming better than they already are will certainly be daunting for future opponents. If the offense can consistently turn in performances like Friday’s, they will be almost impossible to take down because of how relentless and stingy they are on the defensive end.
It wouldn’t have been unexpected for Bow to have had a letdown against Milford after a gritty 35-23 win on Tuesday over Hanover in a rematch of last year’s D-II championship game, but this outcome was anything but a letdown. In fact, it stands as the latest proof that Bow is again one of the top teams in the division.
“We know (Milford’s) gonna be a playoff team, and we came in and we wanted to execute tonight,” Davis said. “We know a lot of people are going to come in and pack it in and play a 2-3 zone against us, so that’s what we’re working on.
“We scored better tonight than we did against Hanover’s 2-3 zone, so we saw some improvement there, and then our full-court pressure tonight was really good. Just trying to get better each game. One game at time.”