Bulldog defense troubles AGWSR to win against 1A No. 15

HAMPTON – The Bulldog girls’ basketball team used its full-court pressure to force turnovers en route to a 54-43 home opening victory over Class 1A No. 15 AGWSR, a team that started the season 2-0.

The Cougars made a run toward the end, but it was too late at that point as coach Miranda Valley’s team opened the season 1-0 against a quality program.

“It is a quality program,” Valley said. “So, they’ve got the respect and they’ve built themselves as that. I thought our girls came out and ready to play. They are excited for this year and ready to go.”

At least 20 turnovers forced overall, mostly in the first half had the Bulldogs leading 31-22 at halftime behind 10 points for Avery Hanson and nine for Lauren Meader, both sophomores. The duo finished with 18 for Meader and 12 for Hanson before she fouled out with 2 minutes, 15 seconds left to play.

“Big win, so we knew that they obviously what their ranking is showing and they went out and got a couple wins,” Valley said. “I was saying that I knew we had to pressure their guards because if they got it into the post…we’re little. We’re feisty, but we’re little. So, we were able to pressure them and create some turnovers.

“It’s going to have to be (our bread and butter, so to speak). We’re going to have to get out and run and move the basketball with quick, quality shots, especially if we are playing a team that is bigger than us and most teams are going to be. They are going to want to slow it down. That’s going to be our go-to. We’ll see. Some nights it will be our poison and it worked tonight.”

It was certainly a far cry from the routs that AGWSR put on in its first two games of the season against Meskwaki Settlement and West Fork.

“I knew they were a group of seniors with leadership and we’re still struggling to find that,” AGWSR coach Laurie Gann said. “In the first two games we didn’t notice that quite as much because we were able to power by them. A team like this, it shows up a little bit. We were a little disappointed in the way we executed because we needed to against a quality team like this. Hopefully, we’ll take this as a growing (experience). Honestly, I thought we were going to have it tougher (against West Fork), it’s how we respond and keep going and learn from it, will be a good thing for us.”

Gann knew that she saw glimpses of her team unable to handle the pressure in its home opener against West Fork, which used it far less than the Bulldogs.

The Cougars, too, were down a starting player from the previous night due to a slight injury in Whitanie Nederhoff.

“It’s like when fatigue happens,” Gann said. “I think some of that playing last night and going back-to-back, and then losing Whitanie Nederhoff. She got stepped on by (West Fork post Emily) Caspers (who also turned her ankle on the play). We’ve got good news that it’s just a bruise, a strain, so she may be back Friday night or we may just keep her until next week because we don’t play again (after that) until next Friday. That took us a little bit not as deep on the bench tonight with the style they play, which is tough, too. We were down to about six (players) tonight.

“Not that that is an excuse, but, that’s the thing, some of them are new. We went with a freshman quite a bit tonight and I think she probably grew up a bit tonight, just getting better. We’re hoping she can develop in ball-handling situations with us as we go forward.”

When the season started, the Bulldogs planned to go with nine on varsity. With potential foul situations, Valley has added a few more from the JV roster.

“We have 11 suited, just to have,” Valley said. “We don’t know. We’ve got kids: foul trouble…I thought we did great in the first half. We’ve got a lot of energy and then came back and our legs got a little tired and you foul, so we picked up a few more fouls in the second half, but we’ve got girls on the bench who are ready to go and know their role.”

Leading by as much as 21 after a 9-0 run to the start the fourth quarter, AGWSR chipped away at the Bulldog lead, using an offensive rebound on a missed free throw for a score by Rachel Sicard and another basket by Alyssa Hames with about a minute and a half to go that cut it down to the final margin. Hames finished with 15 points, Sicard 14.

“Our goal was to cut it into single digits and I said, ‘if we can do that right now that will be a win for us,’” Gann said. “We learned from it, go forward, get better. We almost got there, but way too many turnovers. Too much standing and leaving the poor kid with the ball a lot. Sometimes, it takes experiences like that to work on that in practice. What we said in the locker room, ‘one positive, we get to come back tomorrow and work on getting better at this.’ It’s not like we lost in the final or something. We’ll want to be playing better when we face Clarksville or someone like that in our class.”

It was a start to a busy week for the Bulldogs, who had a road test at Fort Dodge St. Edmond and another non-conference home contest against St. Ansgar, one of the contenders for the Top of Iowa East Conference this year.

“They’ll be tired by Saturday night, but this is what they love, so we’ll go with it,” Valley said.

Bulldogs 54, AGWSR 43

AGWSR (2-1, 0-0)– Alyssa Hames 6-14 3-6 15, Brynn Smith 3-3 0-0 6, Natalie Lippert 0-1 2-2 2, MaKenna Kuper 0-3 0-0 0, Morgan Bakker 0-0 0-0 0, Gracie Finger 1-5 3-5 6, Sicard 6-8 2-4 14. Totals 16-34 10-17 43.

Bulldogs (1-0, 0-0) –Kaci Arjes 2-7 1-2 5, Lauren Meader 8-15 0-0 18, Maci Arjes 2-6 1-2 5, Calista Polk 0-7 1-1 1, Courtney Miller 3-6 0-2 9, Avery Hanson 4-10 3-4 12, Briana Grover 0-1 0-0 0, Morgyn Anderson 2-3 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 6-11 54.

AGWSR     12     7   12   12      -   43

Bulldogs    24   10     9     8      -   54

Three-point goals– AGWSR 1-5 (Finger 1-3, Hames 0-2); H-D 6-24 (Miller 3-5, Meader 2-7, Hanson 1-3, K. Arjes 0-3, Polk 0-3). Rebounds– AGWSR 8 off., 23 def., 31 (Sicard 8, Hames 5, Lippert 5, Kuper 5, Finger 4, Smith 2, Bakker 2); H-D 9 off., 12 def., 21 (Hanson 5, Grover 5, Miller 4, Meader 3, M. Arjes 3, Anderson). Assists– AGWSR 6 (Kuper 2, Finger 2, Sicard 2); H-D 8 (Miller 5, Meader 3). Steals– AGWSR 8 (Hames 2, Lippert 2, Kuper 2, Smith, Bakker); H-D 25 (Meader 7, K. Arjes 4, Miller 4, Grover 4, M. Arjes 3, Hanson 3). Blocks– AGWSR 3 (Kuper, Finger, Sicard); H-D 1 (Miller). Total fouls– AGWSR 12, H-D 14. Fouled out – AGWSR, None; H-D (Hanson).