Where's the bite?

I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed tonight.
For the last few years, Strong and Parkers Chapel have given me some pretty good games. Tuesday wasn't one of them.
The Lady Trojans prevailed 57-34 in Parkers Chapel and even pulled further away after Lauren Brumley left the game with an ankle injury.
Hopefully, Brumley's setback is minor.
Unlike last season, when the Lady Trojans fell apart when an injury kept Brumley on the bench, they stayed strong Tuesday against Strong. The Lady Bulldogs tried to take advantage but their switch to a man-to-man defense backfired. Parkers Chapel, which knocked down 10 3-pointers before the injury, went to its man-to-man offense and shredded the Lady Bulldogs in the final quarter.
Coach Mark Young was asked if he smiled a little on the inside when Strong went man-to-man.
"Anytime you get somebody to doing something they're not used to doing, that makes you feel like you're in pretty good shape," he said. "They got out of the zone and went man. I knew they were a mostly pressing zone team, from what I'd seen out of them. When they went man, I knew that was something different from what they normally did. So, we did feel good about that. We just had to make sure we executed and we did for the most part, so, that was good."
It was certainly good from PC's perspective. The Lady Trojans showed some moxie and reminded everyone that they are the defending 7AA-East champions.
Most impressive, for me, was PC's board work. I wondered how the under-sized Lady Trojans would fare in the paint against the Lady Bulldogs. PC combated its lack of height with strong defensive rebounding from its guards.
"We had a lot of people get a lot of rebounds on the off-side. We've struggled with that at times, having smaller players against bigger players. Sometimes people take advantage of that but tonight I thought we ran to the ball well and rebounded it and we had a lot of different kids get rebounds over there," Young said.
"They kind of understand what they have to do in big games. We've kind of figured out that if you're going to beat Strong, you've got to rebound the ball and keep them from getting second shots. And, you've got to handle their pressure. I thought we did both of those things tonight."
On the other end of the court, Strong's girls did not bring the energy or intensity I was expecting. The Lady Bulldogs, who fell at Bearden 56-51 on Friday, have dropped back-to-back league games since winning the Dual State Tournament.
Conference teams still have to go to Strong but the Lady Bulldogs need to take some of their bite onto the road if they hope to get back into the thick of the chase.