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Sports

Sacred Heart Beats South Side, 40-29, in Holiday Tourney Final

Sacred Heart's pressure defense forced South Side into poor decisions and turnovers.

The Lady Cyclones struggled all game against a high-pressure Sacred Heart defense, falling 40-29 on Tuesday night in the final of the holiday tournament they hosted at South Side.

The Lady Spartans forced turnovers throughout the game with a series of designed traps and presses that confused South Side in just their second game of the season. Lady Cyclones coach Katelyn Dunn said her team's offense will need to make adjustments after it failed to get into a rhythm all game, scoring in double digits in only one quarter.

"We need to teach them some more balance on the floor," Dunn explained. "Right now they're a little confused about how to spread the floor. We need to concentrate on getting some more movement without the ball. It's good we got this out of the way early.  We have time to make adjustments, better that it happens early than during a playoff game or a conference game."

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South Side played Sacred Heart close in the opening quarter and ended it tied with the Lady Spartans at seven. That was as close as South Side would get though, as Sacred Heart went on a 15-0 run that spanned more than five minutes from the end of the second quarter through the beginning of the second half.

Sacred Heart coach Dennis O'Brien preaches a high-pressure defense, and on Tuesday, he saw his defense create offensive opportunities.

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"Our defense always looks to make turnovers," he said. "It's something we work on and we have some good athletes here. The girls were especially aggressive today, and we got some good pressure on them all game."

Megan Lonergan and Lauren Lopresti, both of whom were named to the All-Tournament team, led the way for South Side. Lopresti finished with seven points and Lonergan had 13, but neither could compete with Sacred Heart's Taylor Higgins, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player for the second straight year. 

Higgins was a force on both sides of the floor — running the point, breaking up Lady Cyclones' passes, creating shots for her teammates and finishing with a game-high 16 points. "She's a good athlete and she was all over the place," Dunn said. "She's a good, smart basketball player."

Despite being down 35-16 going into the fourth quarter, the Lady Cyclones buckled down on defense, forced some turnovers of their own, and showed the promise that Dunn hopes continues later into the season.

"I'm happy they didn't give up," she said. "They didn't fall down and they kept playing hard. I hope this will teach the girls some resiliency.  I want to see how we come back from this, not only the next time we face pressure, but after a loss. The way they rebound will show a lot about this team."

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