Class 1A No. 15 AGWSR adjusts to first meeting with West Fork

ACKLEY – A first meeting between West Fork and AGWSR girls’ basketball team was less exciting than anticipated as the Class 1A No. 15 Cougars ran away with a 49-18 victory over a young Warhawks’ team.

Coach Laurie Gann’s team had a good defensive plan against West Fork’s only returning starter, 6-foot-1 post Emily Caspers, who recently signed a letter of intent to play basketball at DMACC.

“…We made it hard for them to get an entry pass into the Caspers girl,” Gann said. “Which frustrated her and them, which was kind of the game-plan. I thought Morgan Bakker, Whitanie Nederhoff and Rachel Sicard did a good job of bodying up to her for the most part.

“On offense, we had some fatigue, and they had some runs there…For this early in the season, it’s kind of a new mix and a new group out there.”

The two teams haven’t played each other in at least 10 years – as long as West Fork has been a program – but both were going for a different opponent this year in the early season to get the kinks out.

“I told (West Fork AD) Alex (Brayton) that I wanted a game other than Clear Lake first,” West Fork coach Rodney Huber said. “Of course, they are a good team (too). We have a tough four-game stretch and I think as long as I’ve been at West Fork, we’ve had Clear Lake to start for a long time, or somebody good. But I’d rather go through this early in the season and be thrown into the fire – I think it’s a good thing. I think we can use a lot of this as learning material and get some of these mistakes out of the way for the conference slate.”

Gann, too, thought that playing the Warhawks was good for her team.

“In fact, a long time because I’ve never coached against them and I’ve been here nine years now,” Gann said of AGWSR playing West Fork. “I mean, I’m a believer that the competition that we play helps us give us a chance to do something at the end of the year. Sometimes, we have our problems, but it makes us learn from it and get stronger. We’re still going to…we’ve got West Marshall coming up in two weeks, or next week.

“We’ve got Hampton and with a team that has senior leadership, it’s going to be another level. How will these girls respond two nights in a row? All good for us I think.”

Tied at 4 after a Rachel Sicard basket at 4 minutes, 2 seconds in the first quarter, the Cougars ended the first quarter on a 10-0 run.

Both Sicard and Alyssa Hames had eight points at halftime and then went on to each score 14 with the duo combining to outscore West Fork as a team.

“The girls got confidence,” Gann said. “They are still working on believing in themselves. We graduated (Aubrie) Fisher last year, some people thought, ‘what will we be like?’, so they are out to prove some things and so far, we’re going to just work to get better every day. The offense at times, but we’re working hard on the defense. We’re usually bigger than other teams on the five spots on the floor. We do a decent job of rebounding and hope that can carry us.”

Caspers and freshman Emma Martinek each finished with six points for West Fork. Caspers, who averaged double-figure scoring last year, was seen with ice heavily taped around her ankle after the game. She managed at least three blocked shots, unofficially, but also was in foul trouble with four before she was pulled.

“She had an ankle deal coming in, tweaked it a couple weeks ago and then she tweaked it again the last two or three minutes, which is unfortunate because I was trying to get her out of the game,” Huber said. “Hopefully, it’s just a scare, but we’ll see.”

AGWSR forced more than 30 turnovers against the Warhawks, but the Cougars also had their fair share.

“I thought we did a better job in the second half,” Huber said. “I think we had more than 20 (turnovers) in the first half and ended up with 32. You’re not going to win many basketball games (with that many). I thought we did a better job…I wish we would have started on a press because they did have some trouble (with it), created some turnovers and made it harder to get in their offense.

“But we gave it back a little bit. Too many careless ones, not catching the ball cleanly, not throwing it at someone’s legs, stuff that is going to…I told the girls they need to make the game simpler. They are making it too hard for themselves, trying to thread the needle. Do things they shouldn’t try to do.”

Neither coach said they didn’t know what to expect from their team going in.

“I didn’t know what to expect out of this group in the beginning, so we’re pleased with where we are at,” Gann said. “We’ve got a long way to go. If we can still win ball games and still get there, that’s a good thing.”

Huber added, “Quite honestly, I didn’t have any expectations. We’re young, I figured we’d have some mental mistakes. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be as many as we had tonight. But, I told them in the locker room, there is a lot of new faces on the floor. Even Maddie (Hubka) and Mak (Fessler), they played quite a bit last year but it was in a different role. I kind of expected to have some early-season struggles. I know we have a talented team, but we’ll come on toward the end of the year.”

 AGWSR 49, West Fork 18

West Fork (0-1, 0-0) – Mycah Weaver 0 0-0 0, Makenzie Fessler 2 0-0 4, Emily Caspers 3 0-4 6, Emma Martinek 3 0-2 6, Maddie Hubka 0 0-2 0, Rylie Akins 1 0-0 2, Madisyn Bonner 0 0-2 0, Sadie Latham 0 0-0 0, Keelee Sheriff 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 0-10 18.

AGWSR (2-0, 0-0) – Alyssa Hames 6 2-6 14, Brynn Smith 1 0-0 2, Natalie Lippert 1 0-1 2, MaKenna Kuper 3 0-0 6, Morgan Bakker 3 0-1 6, Gracie Finger 2 1-2 5, Whitanie Nederhoff 0 0-0 0, Rachel Sicard 6 2-2 14. Totals 22 5-12 49.

W. Fork        4     4     4     6      -   18

AGWSR     14   12   11   12      -   49

Three-point goals – WF, None; AGWSR, None. Rebounds – NA Assists – NA. Steals – NA.Blocks – NA. Total fouls – WF 12, AGWSR 7. Fouled out  – None.