Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Most of Central’s nine-point winning margin over the Husky girls basketball team came during the first quarter.
Sweet Home hosted Central on Thursday night, losing 45-34.
“We struggled all night shooting the ball,” Coach Jason Gorham said. The Huskies shot 29 percent from the field and 40 percent from the foul line.
“We struggled early defensively, giving up 19 points in the first quarter,” Gorham said. The Huskies scored only eight. Both teams were held to 26 points in the rest of the game.
“Once we got settled down defensively and made some better choices, we made the stops,” Gorham said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take advantage of those offensively. The ball just wasn’t going in. We got the shots we wanted. The shots just didn’t go in.”
The Husky defense stepped up after the first quarter, Gorham said. Total, the team had 15 steals and forced 17 turnovers.
The Huskies did OK holding onto the ball, Gorham said. They had 17 turnovers on the game and managed to break Central’s early press. Central dropped its press because it wasn’t working.
Sweet Home trailed 29-17 at halftime and cut the lead to 36-27 in the third quarter.
During the fourth quarter, the Huskies moved to within seven points of the visitors but missed three or four shots to close the gap even more.
The team is going to do some more work on its shooting in practice this week, Gorham said, but it was just one of those nights where everyone went cold at the same time.
Hannah Swanson led the Husky scoring with 11 points. Sara Brocard and Tabby Trahan added six each; Nicki Aerni, four; Breanne Messmer, three; and Makenzie Marchbanks and Olivia Lake, two. Trahan led rebounding with seven boards.
“Trahan and Marchbanks both played really well defensively for us,” Gorham said. “They really disrupted Central for the fourth quarter,” creating opportunities and forcing turnovers.
“At this point, I’m seeing a lot of effort,” Gorham said of the team. “The kids are working hard. I think we’re a lot better team than our record indicates.”
The girls are committed to playing defense together, working as a team and playing hard, Gorham said. “Eventually, I think that hard work’s going to pay off.”
The girls are 1-4 overall.