Hopkins reaches milestone; Bath downs St. Marys

BATH TOWNSHIP - Even if the shots do not fall for Bath, their defensive pressure remains constant. Meanwhile, senior Nicki Hopkins reached a milestone.

Bath's defensive effort helped force 12 first-quarter turnovers against a very young St. Marys squad en route to a 64-45 Western Buckeye League victory. The Roughriders did settle down, however, committing just 16 turnovers in the final three quarters.

Hopkins might have been held to eight points for the game, but did make two 3-pointers to become the all-time 3-point shooter in school history. She entered the game with 171 3-pointers made during her high-school career.

"I actually didn't realize where she was at, until my stat guy told me," Bath coach Greg Mauk said. "I don't think there was any pressure on her. She's the best shooter I have ever coached ... probably because she works so hard,"

Hopkins was 0-for-5 from the floor, before she finally knocked down her first 3-pointer of the game. The shot that put her alone at the top of the all-time list came at the three-minute, 44-second mark of the third quarter. That trey put Bath up, 49-21.

Rachel Mauk led Bath (5-0, 2-0 WBL) with 20 points, including three 3-pointers. She also dished out three assists and made three steals at the defensive end.

Bath sophomore post Alyssa Brandon scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds. Stephanie Sanders scored 11 points and made four steals.

For the game, Bath shot 41 percent from the field. However, the team made just 7-of-34 from behind the 3-point line (21 percent).

Greg Mauk said his team has not shot the basketball that well in the past couple of games.

"We just have not shot the ball very well in the past couple of games," Mauk said. "(We shot) 7-of-34 from 3-point ... that's not how we normally shoot the ball."

Sophomore Rachel Wale led St. Marys (1-4, 1-1) with 22 points and seven rebounds. Erika Thornsberry, who missed the first two games of the season because of an injury, scored 13 points and came away with seven boards.

St. Marys coach Tim Niekamp said his young team is going through some growing pains.

"It's inexperience," Niekamp said. "Not to take anything away from Bath, but there were probably 10 times that we threw the ball right to the other guy. But, these are correctible mistakes."