Lady Eagles Put on Shooting Clinic in First Weekend of Hoops
December 10, 2004
The Eads Girl’s Basketball team can shoot the ball….well…..as was evident this weekend when their outstanding outside attack confounded both opponents and earned them a good start on their season with wins over Fowler, 54-40, on Friday night in Eads and Sharon Springs, 57-37, in Kansas on Saturday evening.
This year the Lady Eagles from Eads have the ingredients for a very successful team as they have four players who can shoot from the outside as well as an inside game. The only thing they don’t have is much experience as they start just one senior, 5’6 Morrell Koch, who played an instrumental role on the 2003 state championship team, and hopes to lead the Eagles to another state berth. Koch is a shooter and will complement a number of other shooters including juniors Alyssa Hadley, Jennie Richards, Kerissa Sicklebower, and Braylynn Peck. The inside will be held up by the very strong but young shoulders of 6’0 freshman Talli Hansen. Hansen should get help soon from sophomores Destiny Saffer and Allye Batterton who did not suit for this week’s games. Rounding out the varsity group are seniors Alysha Uhland, who at 5’3 plays a number of roles depending on the need, and Brittany Peck, who showed some outstanding shooting at the wing this weekend. Sophomore Bethany Kerfoot and freshman post Chevaun Glover also see some varsity time.
A year ago Fowler demoralized the Lady Eagles in their annual opener but it was a different Eagle group this year who has gained a year of experience and court time. The void left by All-Conference player Jessica Watts was filled by Hansen who is a force inside and bothered Fowler on the point in the Eagle half-court defensive attack. The Grizzlies threw out their patented full-court press but this year point guard Alyssa Hadley had little trouble getting through the trapping defense. Hadley has improved a great deal and led the Eagle attack throughout the contest. Hadley would find Koch, and Sicklebower to break open the game from the outside while Hansen bothered the Grizzlies inside. By halftime, Eads was in charge, 32-22, behind a balanced scoring attack. Throughout the second half it was Eads in control, though Fowler would never be completely out of the contest. Hansen led the Eagles in her first prep game completing a double-double with 13 boards and 13 points. Koch and Hadley each added 11 more points while Sicklebower hit for eight.
After a great first game on Friday night, Hansen spent most of the time on the bench on Saturday night in Kansas as the Lady Eagles were very slow to adjust to the close officiating and had 10 fouls in the first quarter before the Wildcats committed any offenses. By the end of the first quarter, Hansen, Sicklebower, Peck, and Koch were all sitting in foul trouble. The bench for Eads was sterling as they held the pieces together with Hadley having a tremendous game breaking down a huge man defense from Sharon Springs. It was a close contest through three quarters as the foul trouble for Eads allowed them little cohesiveness and put the Wildcats on the line a number of times. Hadley and Richards combined for some nice teamwork to control the scoring attack for Eads while it was a complete defensive effort that controlled Sharon Springs, though Eads struggled on transition for most of the third quarter. By the end of three quarters, Eads only led by six, 40-34, and it looked to be anyone’s ballgame. It came down to coaching as good defensive adjustments by Coach Shawn Randel resulted in the Eagles controlling the inside area where they had been beaten all night. And the Wildcat coach underestimated the outside shooting from Eads as a large zone late in the final quarter gave the green light to Koch, Sicklebower, and Hadley who combined for an 8-0 run from the outside. Before Sharon Springs could get out of the zone, Eads had pulled ahead by 15 and would control the rest of the minutes in the contest. Hadley was phenomenal with 18 points while Koch added 12 more. Richards led in double figures in the boards department pulling down 10 and adding eight points on the scoreboard while Hansen pulled down 9 boards despite very limited court time.
The JV girls split over the weekend grabbing a win over Fowler, 33-20, behind 14 points from Brittany Peck, but losing to Sharon Springs, 41-46, despite 11 points from Bethany Kerfoot and nine more from Uhland. Eads will only have one game this week as they host the highly ranked Walsh Eagles on Saturday night who return a number of players from last year’s regional team.