ORANGEVILLE — How much a team can learn about itself and its abilities in just one game, let alone one half, could be the key to turning its season around.

At halftime of the Juda’s girls basketball nonconference game at Orangeville Dec. 9, the visiting Panthers may have stumbled upon a formula for success: A continue full-court press and trusting in their ability to shoot the ball. All of which came with Montana Steinmann, the team’s No. 1 scorer, missing.

“I think that in the first half we were trying to figure ourselves out without Tana. I think in the second half, we started figuring it out,” Juda head coach Willie Nelson said.

Orangeville went on to win 50-40, but a one-time 14-point deficit with 3 minutes left in the third quarter turned evaporated in mere minutes. It was as if the players on the court had a sudden belief in themselves that wasn’t there before.

“Once we got to halftime, we knew we really needed to step it up, and I think that’s when we realized that even though we have our No. 1 player down, this is the time we have to show for ourselves and really pick it up,” Juda senior Taylor Golackson said.

Juda had been called for four fouls in a 43 second stretch and fell behind 29-15 to the Broncos. Nelson had started having his team pressure the length of the court late in second, but miscommunication and a general sense of hesitation confounded the Panthers. But after the tough stretch of tight fouls in the third, hesitation turned into determination.

“I think in the beginning of our press we were really hesitant about what we were doing, but then we just found our players and got our defense in and did what we do best and putting on that pressure and turning the ball over,” Golackson said. “We were just go-go-go. We really started to work as a team.”

The Panthers forced turnover after turnover and went on an 11-0 run over the final three minutes of the quarter to bring the deficit to just three points. Leading the charge surprised everyone on the Panthers’ roster, from Nelson down to the player herself: Anna Skoumal, a sophomore guard.

“I think I felt myself grow,” Skoumal said. “We were trying a new defense and I think we were a little nervous at first. By the second half we got a little more relaxed and ready. I think once we started putting some steals and putting some pressure it got us excited.”

Skoumal scored just four points in the stretch but was the key facilitator on the offensive end. Her defensive pressure led to multiple steals and she always found an opening to take the ball from a teammate trapped along the sideline.

“Two players stepped it up, and one of them I didn’t expect: Anna Skoumal. She’s got the talent; she’s got the encouragement to do it. I was expecting her to score maybe five points, and she had 12 — she came out of nowhere. She was the answer that got us back into the game,” Nelson said.

Juda’s pressure continued into the fourth quarter. Orangeville’s Timber Oakes scored on a putback to make it a 5-point game seconds into the frame, but then Golackson connected on a deep 3 to make it 31-29. 

“I drew up a play where I had our two big shooters in the corner and I made Anna drive. That led to scoring and then a lot of chaos, a lot of steals, which then turned into more 3s. It was very rapid,” Nelson said. “I didn’t really say too much at halftime, I just encouraged shooting. I’m a big guy on shooting the ball. If you don’t shoot it, you’ll never make it.”

Orangeville’s Alyssa Ostendorf took matters into her own hands and began streaking down the court on a press break, cherry picking the offensive end and jumping wide open for passes. Sometimes the passes arrived, other times not, but Ostendorf put together a 15-point quarter with five field goals and a 5 of 5 mark from the free throw line to give the Broncos back the lead.

“I know we lost, but the way we fought back was a win in my book. We fought back twice and really hammered home on some stuff,” Nelson said. “I loved the way the crowd got into it, the bench got into it — it was a team effort.”

Ostendorf, senior guard, finished with a game-high 22 points. Teammate Grace Edler, a senior forward, had 12 points — all of which in the first half.

Skoumal and Golackson each had 12 for the Panthers — 22 of the 24 points between the two came in the second half. Each scored more than double their per-game average on the season.

Montana Steinmann is expected to return to the lineup soon. She’s averaging 15.5 points a game — nearly 40% of the Panther’s 38 points a game. 

“She’s a huge component of our team. She’s a big scorer and a big offensive player for us,” Golackson said.