AGWSR survives physicality of West Fork

SHEFFIELD – AGWSR wore down against West Fork’s constant full court press since the Cougars’ bench doesn’t go very deep.

However, coach Laurie Gann’s squad found a way to survive, hitting key free throws down the stretch in an eventual 44-35 non-conference victory at West Fork High School on Thursday, Dec. 17.

Alyssa Hames scored 15 of her game-high 20 points in the first half for the Cougars.

“Oh wow, very physical,” Gann said. “At times, I don’t think we handled it so well, the turnover ratio I’m not real pleased with, but then again, a lot of it was them doing a good job of creating, causing us to make mistakes, speed up the game more than I would have liked to.

“We’re still working on finding our fine line of when we need to go fast and when to slow down.”

That was something that West Fork coach Rodney Huber knew, too.

“We gave the message to the girls before the game that 12 (Hames) is a very good player and we didn’t adjust to her fast enough,” Huber said. “I mean, they don’t have a lot of subs and we wanted to wear her out. You could tell she was getting rid of the ball more in the second half and trying to rely on her teammates more. We wanted to wear her out and I thought we did a good job of that, but it was too big of a mountain to climb I thought. Once we got back, then it was like, eh, we ran out of gas.”

Leading 22-11 at halftime, West Fork’s deep bench and attack started forcing turnovers and the Warhawks fought their way back to a 31-30 lead in the fourth quarter on a Keelee Sheriff basket.

However, after that West Fork got into some foul trouble and AGWSR got some much-needed help off of its bench from Kienzie Hoodjer, who had both of her baskets down the stretch that extended the Cougars’ lead to 37-31.

“We couldn’t get anything going,” Huber said after the Warhawks took the lead and then relinquished it. “I probably didn’t do a good enough job of subbing and keeping the girls fresh, that was on me, I think, too.

“I’m proud of the way we responded, though. Our girls play hard.”

Gann said, “I don’t know if fatigue came into factor. We basically played six kids tonight, that might be a little of it. But yeah, that third quarter was not a very good quarter for us.”

Both Makenzie Fessler and Ellie Weaver fouled out for West Fork, but that attributed to the physical game the Warhawks played.

“That’s going to make us better because we have a young team,” Huber said. With Mak and Sadie (Latham), which is out right now our only two seniors, our sophomores are very talented and we return four of our five starters next year, so all of these games are going to keep making us better as we go.”

And Gann said that this is the kind of game her team can use for the future.

“We needed to see that, it’s hard to mock those situations with that level, having enough kids at that level to be able to do that,” Gann said. “It also shows our kids, we told them, ‘yeah, it’s great we won, a lot of times you learn from losses, but we need to learn from some things tonight moving forward when we see another team that might do that kind of stuff.’

“For the most part, we feel like we can handle pressure, it’s just we have to work on when they are doubling, tripling our dribbler out front, specifically for the most part that we’re not standing and watching. We had times where we stand and let her do her thing and that’s tough on her.”

Hames was often the recipient of double and triple-team traps in the corner, but she was sent to the free throw line often. She was 10-of-14 from the line.

“That’s why she’s going to NIACC next year,” Gann said, “they see that (she can handle it).”

AGWSR 44, West Fork 35

AGWSR (4-1, 2-0)– Alyssa Hames 5 10-14 20, Brynn Smith 1 0-0 2, MaKenna Kuper 1 1-2 3, Morgan Bakker 3 2-2 8, Grace Finger 2 3-6 7, Chaylie Lippert 0 0-0 0, Kienzie Hoodjer 2 0-0 4. Totals 14 16-24 44.

West Fork (4-1, 4-0)– Makenzie Fessler 2-9 1-3 6, Maddie Hubka 0-6 0-0 0, Ellie Weaver 1-4 0-0 2, Madisyn Bonner 0-3 0-2 0, Emma Martinek 5-12 1-1 12, Mycah Weaver 1-2 0-0 2, Rylie Akins 3-10 1-2 9, Keelee Sheriff 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 14-48 3-8 35.

AGWSR       7   15     8   14      -   44

W. Fork        5     6   16     8      -   35

Three-point goals– AGWSR, None; WF 4-18 (Akins 2-6, Fessler 1-3, Martinek 1-3, M. Weaver 0-1, E. Weaver 0-2, Hubka 0-3). Rebounds– AGWSR, NA; WF 16 (Martinek 5, Fessler 3, Hubka 3, Bonner 2, E. Weaver, Akins, Sheriff). Assists– AGWSR, NA; WF 4 (Fessler, Bonner, Martinek, Akins). Steals– AGWSR, NA; WF 12 (Hubka 5, Akins 2, Fessler, E. Weaver, Bonner, Martinek, Sheriff). Blocks – AGWSR, NA; WF 1 (Bonner). Total fouls – AGWSR NA; WF 22. Fouled out – WF (Fessler, E. Weaver).