West Fork girls take care of North Butler

SHEFFIELD—  The West Fork Warhawks girls basketball team played some tough defense as the Warhawks defeated the North Butler Bearcats 53-26 on Jan. 2.

At the start of the matchup it was a close game as West Fork led 12-11 after the first quarter. It stayed closed heading into halftime as the Warhawks outscored the Bearcats 7-5 to make it a 19-16 game.

In the second half, the Warhawks pulled away as West Fork outscored North Butler 22-4 in the third quarter and 12-6 in the fourth quarter. The Warhawks held North Butler to 10-for-33 from the field and had 18 steals to go with four blocks. Leah Weaver led the team with eight steals, Karma McMorris added four steals, Mallery Meier added three steals, Brylie Hubka, Evelyn Hitzhusen, and Brylee Dickman all recorded one steal each. Weaver also led the team with two blocks and Lily Dirksen and Dickman both recorded one block each.

Warhawks’ head coach Rodney Huber said that getting a win after coming back from break was a nice confidence booster for the team and he said that some of the younger girls coming off the bench played well for the Warhawks.

Huber said that the full court press and pressure the Warhawks used looked the best of the season so far during the game.

“We worked on it quite a bit over break and I think the lightbulb came on for some of the girls in the last five or six practices,” Huber said. “I think they are really starting to understand the rotation and what we are asking them to do. We did a really good job of getting late traps across half court. That was something we really emphasized over break.”

Huber said that the team has been looking for the right offensive identity during the early parts of the season and that now the team is focusing on more ball movement and pass and cuts concepts.

“I thought we moved the ball incredibly well side to side and when you move the defense you get better shots and the efficiency of your offense usually improves,” Huber said.

On offense, the Warhawks shot 23-for-56 from the field, including 5-for-20 from three-point range and 2-for10 from the free-throw line. Weaver scored a game-high 25 points, McMorris scored 10 points, Meier added eight points, Dickman scored six points, and Hubka and Tarah Ruckdashel both scored two points. 

Huber said that with having some more success he can see a little bit more buy in from the players and he said he thinks the girls understand the amount of hard work they have to put in to win games.

“Some of these girls have not played a lot of varsity but they have JV experience,” Huber said. “But you have to be very sharp on the varsity games vs JV games where you can maybe get away with using your athleticism against teams. I think the girls are starting to understand how hard you have to practice and how hard they have to play in games on every possession. I think that has kind of been the difference here.”

The team’s next game is on Jan. 16. vs Northwood-Kensett at 6:15 p.m.