Eads Girls Continues Their Up and Down Season

By Betsy Barnett

January 23, 2004

The Eads Lady Eagles had some success on Friday night in Karval when they handed the Trojans a 55-22 defeat, but ran into a buzz saw on Saturday night in Stratton against a very physical Eagle team who finally wore Eads down in a twenty-point loss, 58-38. The up-and-down Lady Eagles are now 4-5 nearly midway through the season.

The young Eagles exhibited their developing shooting abilities as their outside shooting was on against the zone put on by the Trojans. Eads put on their signature half-court trap that was good for 16 points in the first stanza behind steals and buckets from Jessica Watts and Jennie Richards. Watts would hit eight of her 13 points in the first quarter while Richards contributed a number of steals. The inside game of Watts and Richards began to open up the outside midway through the second half when Morrell Koch would get hot on the wing hitting for two long balls and a deuce. Eads would have a comfortable lead, 35-9, going into the lockers. The second half saw the bench for Eads get plenty of action. Karval would be able to stay a little closer in the second half, but it was way too little too late. Koch and Richards led all scorers with 14 apiece while Watts added 13 more.

The Lady Eagles from the north didn't allow such easy looks at the bucket on Saturday night when they ran into a very physical and strong Stratton team who manhandled the smaller Eads group. Eads had their moments as they did a number of things right, but it seemed fatigue would set in and mental mistakes resulted. Late in the first half, Eads was holding on trailing by seven when three straight turnovers resulted in a halftime score of 26-15 in favor of Stratton. Eads came out strong in the third quarter behind some nice looks by Richards, who hit a long ball and a free throw, and Alyssa Hadley who got a couple of decent finds. They would once again get within 10 points late in the third when fatigue did them in and resulted in a twenty point deficit, in just minutes, after missed shot opportunities and turnovers. By late in the game Eads was on the floor a number of times against the much stronger Stratton group. Watts had a fine game getting a double-double with 10 points and 17 rebounds.

Eads has two conference games this weekend beginning at home on Friday night with Cheraw and then ending the weekend on Saturday night on the road with Granada. They need to put in some good effort and get the two conference wins in order to establish their position in the upcoming District playoffs.