Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Over the past two seasons Solon has won a lot of games on the strength of its perimeter shooting.

As the Spartans struggled to find the range from beyond the 3-point arc on Tuesday it was the lone player in the Spartan lineup that isn’t known for outside shooting that led the way.

Senior forward Anna Quillin had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds as Class 3A second-ranked Solon overcame 5-of-30 3-point shooting to down City High 50-38 in a non-conference contest in Solon.

“When you go 5-of-29 from three you are going to have to get some points from somewhere and tonight that was Anna,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “She rebounded the ball well, Anna is always around the ball and you can count on her. We didn’t shoot the ball well and 13 points for Anna was really big for us.”

Solon missed all 12 of its first-half 3-point attempts but got a huge boost from Quillin who had 11 of her 13 points before halftime.

Quillin had seven points during an 11-0 Solon run to close the first half and had six offensive rebounds in the first half.

“I think we all as a team work well together and we know how to bring each other up even if shots aren’t falling like tonight,” Quillin said. “I knew if I could get to the boards I could help our team, I can get us second chances on shots, I can get my own shots that’s how I can help.”

Solon led 10-5 after the opening quarter despite going 0-of-8 from 3-point range.

The Spartans led 10-7 but had gone scoreless for nearly five minutes to open the second quarter before Quillin provided a jump start.

Quillin scored on conventional 3-point play and then on a putback to push the lead to 15-7.

Solon had 14 offensive rebounds, including seven from Quillin and finished with a 36-29 rebounding edge.

“We are used to being the smaller team, if I’m our post you know we are a small team,” Quillin said. “We use our quickness and our team chemistry with the passes we make to create shots for one another.”

Solon held City High scoreless for the final 4:28 of the opening half while taking a 21-7 halftime lead.

The Spartans limited City High to 16 percent (3-of-19) shooting in the first half and forced the Little Hawks in 14 first-half turnovers.

“Our defense is really what won us this game,” Solon senior Hailey Miller said. “We just turned it up on defense. Especially when we aren’t shooting it well we are aggressive on defense and try to get transition points when our shots aren’t falling.”

After Miller hit the first 3-pointer of the game for Solon 10 seconds into the second half to push the lead to 24-7 City High charged back.

A 14-0 Little Hawk run cut the lead to 24-21 with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter.

“We just didn’t execute any of the stuff we talked about in the first half,” City High coach Lynsey Barnard said. “Our conversation at halftime was, if our stuff doesn’t work that’s on us but we have to run it first.”

Callie Levin closed the third quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead back to 30-21.

Solon then put the game away with a 12-0 fourth-quarter run that featured 3-pointers from Miller and sophomore Delainey Durr.

“They are big, they are long but there were times when we had runs that we got in transition and got open 3s in the transition,” Smith said. “It was a good test for us. I don’t know if anyone has played three teams like we’ve played to start and we were on the road twice.”

Levin had 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half as Solon pulled away to improve to 3-0 on the season.

City High got 12 points from Augie Palmer and 11 from freshman Kaitlin Loria while dropping to 0-2.

“It was definitely a roller coaster,” Barnard said. “When we were good we were good and when we weren’t we weren’t.”

City High                     5    2  14  17  –  38

Solon                         10  11   6   20  –  50

City High (38) – Avy Lindsey 0-1 0-0 0, Augie Palmer 5-13 2-3 12, Hattie Galloway 3-6 0-0 7, Kaitlin Loria 4-8 3-3 11, Emmy McComas 0-2 1-2 1, Tessa Driscoll 3-9 1-2 7, Totals 15-39 7-10 38.

Solon (50) – Kobi Lietz 0-4 0-2 0, Delainey Durr 2-6 0-0 5, Hailey Miller 2-13 0-0 6, Mia Stahle 2-7 0-0 4, Anna Quillin 6-9 1-1 13, Callie Levin 6-16 8-9 22, Jerzey Haluska 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 17-56 9-12 50.

3-point field goals – ICH 1-13 (Lindsey 0-1, Palmer 0-4, Galloway 1-1, Loria 0-1, Driscoll 0-6), SOL 5-30 (Lietz 0-4, Durr 1-5, Miller 2-9, Levin 2-7, Stahle 0-4, Haluska 0-1). Rebounds – ICH 29 (McComas 7), SOL 36 (Quillin 13). Turnovers – ICH 21, SOL 12. Total fouls – ICH 11, SOL 14. Fouled out – None. Technical fouls – None.

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