Shawnee presses its way to lop-sided win over Bluffton

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP - It wasn't a good start for the Bluffton girls basketball team on Saturday.

It wasn't a very good finish, either.

Shawnee opened the game with an 18-0 run against the Pirates and never let up, en route to an 80-37 victory at Lappin Gymnasium.

Eleven players cracked the scoring column for Shawnee (5-3) with Samantha Robison leading the way with 21 points, including two 3-pointers. Megan Ream and Hailey Griffo each scored 11 points for Shawnee. Ream also came away with three steals at the defensive end.

Jonica Schmutz led Bluffton (3-7) with 10 points and had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Shawnee's defensive pressure helped pave the way for many of its points. For the game, Shawnee made 14 steals with Rachel Ciminillo recording five of those. Bluffton turned the basketball over 25 times for the game.

Shawnee coach Jeff Heistan said his team's defensive effort was the difference in the game.

"I told them during the week that the two areas we needed to improve on were our defensive effort and rebounding," Heistan said. "Those are the two areas we felt we needed to improve on before (returning to) league play. I thought our defensive pressure really got to them."

Bluffton struggled handling the ball against Shawnee's press. The Pirates committed 11 turnovers in the first eight minutes and managed to make just 2-of-9 from the field. Shawnee, on the other hand, was 10-of-25 from the floor in the first quarter.

Bluffton coach Dennis Lee said his team did not react very well to Shawnee's press.

"We knew all week at practice they would come out and press us," Lee said. "We just did not do a very good job at handling it."

After a quick start, offensively, Shawnee scored just 10 points in the second quarter, going into halftime with a 37-10 lead.

For the half, Bluffton was 4-of-15 from the floor, while Shawnee was 14-of-44. Robison scored 14 of her points in the first half. Shawnee ended the game, shooting 42 percent, while Bluffton shot 31 percent from the floor.

In the third quarter, the Indians got its offense running once more as they outscored the Pirates 20-11 and held a commanding 57-21 lead at the end of three.

Heistan said his team's depth also paid huge dividends against Bluffton.

"With our up-tempo style, we try to play a lot of girls," Heistan said.