The Blue Eye Lady Bulldogs defeated the Galena Lady Bears, 54-46, in a matchup of SWCL foes. The game could best be described as one of two distinct halves. In the first half neither side shot the ball well and both had many turnovers. Blue Eye led at the half, 23-19.
The Lady Bulldogs came out strong in the third quarter, increasing their lead to seven, 36-29. A key moment was when Galena point guard Rachel Harding picked up her fourth foul with 2:39 to go in the third quarter. The Lady Bears had to adjust to playing without their point guard.
“In a lot of ways it was frustrating,” said Galena coach Mark Vert. “It’s easy to say it was the officials, they didn’t help us but they didn’t hurt us. In both instances when our point guard got in foul trouble, we had to take her out and Blue Eye took advantage of our youth a little bit.”
Blue Eye continued to attack the bucket in the fourth quarter and led 44-33 before Harding re-entered the game. Galena went on a 9-2 run to put their team within striking distance with 3:34 left to go in the contest. Blue Eye would then take the air out of the ball, running a ball control offense. Galena was forced to foul and Blue Eye went 6-8 on free throws down the stretch.
Leading all scorers on the night was Blue Eye freshman Kenedi Larson with 15.
“We played great, we got a lot of steals and we rebounded pretty well,” said Larson. “It was a good game, a good win.”
The leading rebounder of the night was Blue Eye senior Cassandra Andreatta. Andreatta also scored eight of her team’s 18 fourth quarter points.
“I know I’m only 5’8” but it doesn’t matter what size you are, as long as you are going in and getting rebounds,” said Andreatta. “Anyone can go in and get a rebound, it’s just effort. In the fourth quarter I knew we had to calm down a little and play our game.”
“We’ve got to work to have a deeper bench,” said Vert. “We’ve got to clean up our execution, we didn’t get as many clean looks as I’d like to, but we did make some big shots and played our guts out. The final score didn’t indicate how well the game was played. It really overshadows our performance. We played well against a really good team. We let the game get away from us at the end. We’re not there yet but we are getting closer.”
Blue Eye starts two seniors and plays several freshmen. Larson knocked down a key three to put Blue Eye up five when Galena had cut the margin to two.
“Larson has been playing well,” said Elfrink. “She continues to improve her game. She’s got a shooter’s mentality and as she gets older, she’ll understand more what a good shot is and what a bad shot is. I’m really proud of Cassandra, too. She did a good job rebounding and her defense was outstanding. She took over in the fourth. I told her, there are times it may seem difficult and she knows, as a senior, there are times I may seem harder on her than the other kids. It’s nothing personal, she’s my senior. She’s
been there, and she’s got to step up and be able to take the coaching and relay it to the other kids so they can learn from her. I think she did a nice job tonight.”
Blue Eye coach Ken Elfrink knew that his young Lady Bulldogs were in for a battle but was pleased with the win.
“I figured the game would be a dog fight,” said Elfrink. “The way it started out was what I was anticipating and I knew Galena wasn’t going to quit. Coach Vert has done a good job and his kids play hard. They’ve got kids that can knock down 3’s to get them back in it, and that’s kind of what happened a little bit. That three ball is big, it’s huge. We hit one that was huge for us but they hit a couple there, with Greenway hitting one or two. Defensively, early on we guarded pretty well, we just missed a lot of two-footers. If we’d made those, the margin would probably be wider, but that’s nature of the beast.”
Galena 10 9 10 17 -46
Blue Eye 13 10 13 18 -54
Galena—Makayla Inman-14, Ashlee Greenway-8, Rachel Harding-8, LeAnne Sansoucie-7, Megan Caulfield-7, Alison Stephens-2
Blue Eye— Kenedi Larson-15, Cassandra Andreatta-13, Katelynn Hansen-10, Mackenzie Hobbs-8, Ayshia Bettlach-4, Jaden Box-2, Hope Smith-2
