The Douglas girls' basketball team entered Saturday's season-opener looking at the matchup at Spanish Springs as a pop quiz.
"We were just hoping to get a look at where we're at it and we still have a lot of things to work on," Douglas coach Werner Christen said.
Douglas struggled to find an answer for the Cougars' man-to-man defense as Spanish Springs held on for a 35-30 win in the opener for both teams.
"We didn't attack their man defense very well, which is funny because normally we're a very good man offense and we struggle against the zone," Christen said. "It was the exact opposite in this game.
"We moved the ball pretty well, but sometimes we were almost too patient and tried to get layups instead of settling for open shots at the elbow."
Douglas jumped out to a 17-10 lead early in the game but the Cougars made the defensive switch, which caused problems for the Tigers.
"It seemed like we were a step slow all night and we might not be in as good of shape as we need to be," Christen said. "We just couldn't get any runs going and it cost us."
Bridget Maestretti led the Tigers with nine points, including two 3-pointers, and Jessica Waggoner added seven points.
Dana Pardee put up five points, Gina Pfaffenberger scored four, Dany Heidt scored three points and Sarah Hartley scored two points for the Tigers.
After the defensive switch, the Cougars went on a 9-1 run to take the lead.
Douglas next takes on Lowry in the opening round of the Lowry Invitational at Winnemucca Thursday.
FRESHMEN
Douglas tooka season-opening 31-23 loss to Spanish Springs Saturday.
The Tigers struggled with the Cougars' size and went into the locker room with a 25-10 deficit.
Douglas came out on fire in the second half with a hustling defensive effort led by Jessica Burt, Ne'Jae Jackson, CJ Baumgartner, Christy Harvey, Susie White and Linnette Kenney.
Douglas shut the Cougars down completely in the third quarter, allowing no points, and extending that into the fourth, giving up only six points for the half.
The Tigers also got their offense going and cut the margin down to only eight points with strong offensive rebounds by Briana Rutherdale and sharp passing from Sara Mangiaracina and Kaitlin Babbitt.
Jackson led Douglas with eight points, White scored six, Baumgartner had four and Burt and Kenney added two each. Julia Miller finished off with one point.
-- Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
