For the first time in many years, the Eagle Grove girls basketball team advanced to the second round of 2A regional play following a 53-48 win over Central Springs at Manly. By the time you read this, they will have faced Dike-New Hartford in Dike in the second round.
“I told them (before the game) to take it one step at a time,” stated head coach Mike Herrington. “For the seniors, it’s a chance to say you played in the second round. It helps the younger players too. If I could have, I would have given a game ball to everyone on the bench. They were cheering in support of the others. In the last month, I think the girls have found out the game is multi-dimensional. This game showed what we could do with team defense.”
Final unofficial scoring shows Kaitlin Sampson with 18 points, Lea Friedl with 13 points, Ariane Lyman with 10 points, Braxton Steil with eight points and both Hannah Sampson and Nadia Kaiser with two points each (these were the only stats available at press time).
“We held two of their better scorers in check,” said Herrington. “Saysirisanh got six points and Harms four. However, two others carried them in the second half and that let them get away from us. Kaitlin stepped up and carried us in the second half. It seem the third quarter has been our Achilles heel this year. Central Springs outscored us 14 to five in that period, and outrebounded us too during that stretch. We were able to right the ship in the fourth and put up 18 points. We picked up our intensity and held them off from there.”
Coach liked the fact that the team played well fundamentally. “We were solid at the line, and controlled the ball and did a good job of not turning it over. We attacked the basket, and in doing so got a couple of them in foul trouble. On the flip side, Ariane only drew one foul. I told her before the game that we need to keep her out there as much as possible so she did well in that.”
He then handed out some individual kudos. “Kaitlin shot the ball with confidence,” said the coach. “Lea did what Lea does, and did a nice job of going to the hoop. Braxton continues to improve her game. While Olivia is not strong offensively, she got in the lane and rotated on defense with a couple of blocks and rebounds. She works hard of defense and does a good job to give us what she can.”
In their final season schedule game on Tuesday, they lost 66-38 versus Garner-Hayfield/Ventura. The Cardinals held a 27-15 halftime lead, but then turned it up a notch to outscore the Eagles 24 points to 11 to pretty much put it away. The team shot 34.3 percent from the field, 64.7 percent from the line and 42.9 percent from three-point range. They had 30 total rebounds (22 defensively), five total assists, five total steals and two blocked shots.
Cardinals 66, Eagles 38
