Dotsey and Rowland’s defense keys Haverford’s win

HAVERFORD — When the shots aren’t falling this season, Haverford is confident its defense can win a lot of games.

When you’re in the midst of a 10-for-38 shooting performance, as the Fords were Thursday evening, you better have good defenders on the floor. The Fords have plenty of them.

In a 29-24 victory over Garnet Valley, coach Lauren Pellicane relied on contributions – mostly on the defensive end – from 11 players.

“With this team, it’s going to start with our defense at all times,” Pellicane said. “We were sluggish today, we were making too many mistakes offensively, and we needed to limit turnovers. Our defense is going to help our games become a little bit more fluid.

“It goes both ways. We need our guards to play smart, not turning the ball over, and we need our key players like Caroline (Dotsey) to step up.”

Dotsey, the sophomore power forward, registered eight points and three blocked shots. She started to hit her stride in the second half, along with the Fords’ other main scorer, senior guard Chiara MacGillivray. Dotsey scored four points in the fourth quarter and MacGillivray had five in the third.

“When my shots aren’t falling in the beginning, I’m always working on sticking with it. I keep going and don’t get down on myself,” Dotsey said. “I felt like we were able to be a lot more verbal as a team, just trying to communicate more. That’s something we’ve been working on.”

Her mere presence makes a big difference. The Jags had a difficult time scoring inside the paint against Dotsey, who is rangy and athletic.

“I’ve really been trying to work on not over-committing and being able to support my team with my defense,” she said. “And just not standing there causing congestion.”

No player exemplifies Haverford’s gritty, defensive-minded style better than junior forward Emma Rowland. She flies under the radar, but she’s a strong on-the-ball defender and rebounder.

“It starts with defense and we have a really aggressive team this year,” Rowland said. “Once we get the defense down, we can take it on offense and get rebounds and score more. We have to keep working at it.”

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