By Mark Schafer | The News-Review
ALBIA – Championships aren’t won in the first game of the season, but the roots of one can be set on the opening night.
For the Sigourney girls basketball team, they are trying to build on their team after being on the cusp of a State tournament berth last season. The first indications were good as the Savages used plenty of defense, and a lot of star power in a 55-31 victory.
“We work a lot on our defense,” said Sigourney head coach, Kaylee Weber. “Defense wins championships and defense wins games. We want to be a strong defensive team, and the girls know what the punishment is if they don’t play defense well. I am really proud with how the defense worked through most of the game tonight.”
In every quarter except the second quarter the Sigourney defense was strong as they limited a deep-scoring Albia team to 17 combined points in three of the four quarters. Albia’s strongest quarter was in the second when the Lady Dees scored 14 points.
The defensive domination by Sigourney was offset by one of their biggest returners as Brynn Clarahan started her sophomore season with a sensational effort, leading the Savages in scoring. Most of her damage came in the opening quarter.
Six of the first eight points of the game all belonged to Clarahan who seemed to be almost untouchable in the first quarter. Clarahan used her quick speed to race past the Lady Dees defense in the opening minutes of the game, scoring two layups within the first 60 seconds. She, and the rest of the Savages, were able to use a suffocating defense to swarm on the Albia players, creating turnovers.
Clarahan would then use her speed to pick up the loose ball and run it to the other end of the court to score.
In the first 90 seconds of the game the Savages led 8-0 with Clarahan scoring six of the first eight points.
That jumpstart gave the Savages a bit of confidence, which they would ride for the rest of the game.
“It gives us lots of confidence when we are able to get early buckets,” Weber said about an eventual 17-4 run that the Savages put together in the first quarter. “Not just on Brynn who scores, but our whole team was working well early. We played well on defense that really helped us get going on offense. We just were able to get Brynn the ball early on in the game.”
Clarahan was able to finish the first quarter with 10 points. Albia, although hindered by the tremendous Savage defense, did start to break through and score.
In the second quarter Albia seemed to find routes around the Savage defense in the second quarter, the lead from the first eight minutes of the season sustained the Savages. What also helped was the depth of scoring that Sigourney displayed.
“We like to get the ball passed around more, but whoever scores, scores, so we were able to take what we had,” Weber said.
Things closed up just before halftime when Albia put together a 5-0 run, which included hitting a three pointer with just a few seconds left to pull within seven points, 25-18, at halftime.
Sigourney made sure that was as close as the Lady Dees would get.
Throughout the second half the Sigourney defense, once again, ramped up their pressure. They were able to trap the Lady Dees just seconds after passing half court. With the defense came turnovers and steals that the Savages easily used to score points.
By the end of the third quarter the Savages had increased their lead 36-22. Early in the fourth quarter the Savages were able to gain a 20-point advantage over Albia, which they would keep, eventually winning the game by 24 points.
For Weber, and the rest of Sigourney, the start of the year is already going better than it did last year.
“Getting that first win under our belt and getting that confidence from a win over a larger school, and they are a larger school, is really big for us,” Weber said. Albia is a class 3A school and has about 100 more students than Sigourney does, who is a class 2A team this year. “It is really a confidence boost for us. We truly believe we can compete with anyone in the state as long as everyone shows up ready to compete. It was a good win.”
Complete statistics were not available at press time.
The Savages start the season 1-0 and will be off until Thursday when they open the South Iowa Cedar League slate with a road game against Colfax-Mingo (1-1). The Savages are home on Friday night when they host Belle Plaine.
