Dealing from a deck with No. 51 as his ace, Indians coach Will Bozo observed a first half built on 15 steals -- including 2 apiece by Koski, senior point guard Lisa Simpson, senior forward Laura Panic and sophomore center Erin Skis in an 18-3 first quarter bookended stealthily by Ashley's ashes.
They pressed. She impressed.
"We do the man-to-man press, which is really effective, and then we go to the 2-2-1, which also is really effective for us, so we have a lot of options that we can roll with," Koski said. "We see what we can do. We have a lot of quick people, too, and that's good for playing defense and our help defense."
Counting contributions Tuesday night as numerous as the cast of "Cats," the BFE girls made defensive music with help from Koski. The 5-foot-9 senior flirted with triple-double territory in the first half on 13 points, 6 steals and 4 rebounds, dancing the Indians to a 48-31 nonconference win over the host Cougars.
Sitting out the latter portion of the third quarter and the entire fourth, Koski led BFE (10-2) to its fourth straight victory with 13 points, 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Junior guard Anna Jozefiak added 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, while junior guard Nicole Wilk (4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals) and Smith (5 rebounds, 5 steals, 2 assists) had 6 points.
Without the services of sophomore wing guard Morgan Williams -- waiting for medical clearance from a tweaked hamstring -- Hooterville South (3-9) saw its modest two-game win streak snapped. Twin sister Brittany Williams paced the Cougars with 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, but Lemont unleashed Skowronski and teeming team defense.
She pressed. They impressed.
"That's what we're capable of, and that has to make a difference for us because sometimes we don't shoot well," said Bozo, whose Indians actually converted a solid 42.2 percent (19-of-45), with 41.4 (12-of-29) in the first half and a fire-it-up 44.4 (8-of-18) in the first quarter. "Defense is what we're hanging our hat on."
"We always try to do our best on defense because our team motto is defense creates offense," confirmed Simpson, who complemented Koski in the first half with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists. "That's one of our strongest points as a team -- our defense. We try to help each other, get good steals and make smart decisions when we have the ball."
(And it ends ..)
Earlier, however, at the height of the fullcourt fight, BFE looked like a champion welterweight as Simpson and Co. represented the hand-in-hand tandem with the knockout punch of Koski.
They pressed. She pressed.
She impressed. They impressed.
"She's the one we can go to if we need a good basket," Simpson said. "We have a good system. The guards make the steals and we can always drop it off to Ashley."