The JV team completed three more games recently going 2-1 in those games losing at Clear Lake, winning at home against Iowa Falls and winning again at Algona.
The JV girls lost at Clear Lake Tuesday December 15, 55-17. The game was still relatively close at halftime trailing 26-10. However, we could not put together any kind of consistent offense like we needed. Clear Lake plays an entirely different type of defense and game tempo than we have seen so far this year. It’s a very aggressive, in your face defense with a lot of ball pressure. Their hands are very active and they play extremely good help defense. We typically could break their full court press just fine. However, once we got into our half-court offense we didn’t remain patient. We took quick shots and not within our offense. Clear Lake likes to get you in a hurry-up so you take quick shots so this was a learning experience. It’s easier to lose focus when your down like that in a game but the girls fought hard to the end. We will look for improvement against this time when we play them the second time around in January.
Scoring: Delia Swanson 7, Sawyer Morrical 4, Kennedy Trca 2, Kalie Dow 2 and Nikki Kapka 2 points.
Next the JV girls rebounded for a win at home Friday, December 18 against Iowa Falls winning 38-17. The JV girls put together a solid 1st half leading the entire way. However, we especially put together a nice stretch of play from about the 2 quarter through the remainder of the game. Once again, the full court pressure was the key to the game getting some steals and easier baskets. We really worked on settling down and running the offense this week in practice. Sawyer Morrical, Olyvia Olson and Kaylie Dow all did a nice job of taking control of things and setting up the offense when we needed to. Delia Swanson and Summer Traub did an excellent job of rebounding. We still want to get out and fast break when we can, but we also need to recognize when it isn’t there. We are really starting to see some better bench contributions from this group, and they are gaining confidence each time they get into a game. Emma State and Kennedy Trca came in off the bench and gave good overall game contributions.
Scoring: Sawyer Morrical 11 points, Summer Traub 9, Delia Swanson 6, Emma State 4, Kennedy Trca 4, Olyvia Olson 2, and Kaylie Dow 2 points.
The girls then played at Algona Tuesday, December 22 winning 28-16. We again started out the game very slow and it took a while to find our energy and flow of the game. The girls fell behind at halftime trailing 7-14 and really couldn’t get much going in the first half of this game. We struggled with our passing and overall timing within the offense along with just getting into the game flow. Algona plays a very slow down offense type of game. It can sometimes be hard and frustrating to play half-court defense for long periods of times. Late in the 2nd quarter we did switch to our full court press to try and speed up the game and that started to create some offense and energy into the game. Starting out games better is something we will definitely have to make some adjustments with moving forward so we are more ready to play. We were able to hold Algona to 2 points in the entire 2nd half which is outstanding. These girls can really play some good defense once we get things going and find the energy. We just need to get there quicker starting out each game. Nikki Kapka is starting to become more aggressive getting a lot of tip balls and steals. Payton DeCoster and Kennedy Trca are also becoming really active on the defensive end of the floor. Delia Swanson and Summer Traub have shown a good connection looking for each other in the post area or in our high / low passing offense. Offensively you are going to have nights like this, but the girls remained confident and focused on the defensive end to create their offense in this game.
Scoring: Delia Swanson 9 points, Sawyer Morrical 6, Summer Traub 4, Olyvia Olson 3, Nikki Kapka 2, Kaylie Dow 2, and Kennedy Trca 2 points. Next up of the JV girls will be at Belmond/Klemme Thursday January 7th
Written by Coach Gary Anderson
