Wahawk Athletics

By NICK PETAROS, nick.petaros@wcfcourier.com | Posted: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 5:00 am

WATERLOO, Iowa --- A pair of youthful Mississippi Valley Conference girls' basketball teams endured their share of growing pains Tuesday night in a league opener at Waterloo West's Siddens Gymnasium.

In the end, it was Class 4A's No. 12-rated Cedar Rapids Kennedy's ball control and relentless defensive pressure that won out as the Cougars let a 20-0 first-half run carry them to a 56-42 victory over Waterloo West.

"We haven't played yet and I didn't know what would happen," Kennedy coach Dennis Roloff said of his team, which starts one senior. "We're a young team and we're going to mature into a very good team. I thought we took a lot of things away from them tonight. They turned it over a lot and we were able to get up on them and hit some shots."

West (2-1) has plenty of youth, as well. The Wahawks graduated three starters from last year's Valley Division championship team and stuck with five players for nearly the entire game.

"We're just trying to do the best that we can with a young team right now against tough competition," West coach Tony Pappas said. "We've just got to get stronger and make better decisions with the ball.

"We just panicked and threw the ball away and they took it from us too many times. We didn't capitalize. We missed easy shots, we missed free throws and it was just tough."

West started strong as Haley Puk and Blaire Thomas exchanged layups and assists to open the game and Zinka Duric put back an errant shot with 2:40 left in the opening quarter for an 11-9 advantage.

From there, Kennedy (1-0) picked up its defensive pressure and West committed the majority of its 16 first-half turnovers during the Cougars' 20-point knockout run that extended to the 2:04 mark of the second quarter.

In the second half, West fought back.

The Wahawks cut a 22-point deficit to 10 points as they went on a 15-3 run over the final 6:17 of the third quarter. Thomas capped the run with a 2-on-1 fastbreak layup of a Duric assist and recorded 10 of her game-high 20 points in the second half. Duric added 10 points for the Wahawks.

"I've got to give my players credit," Pappas said. "I got on them at halftime and challenged them and they came out and they actually won the second half."

Kennedy answered early in the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer from junior Madi Meier that accounted for part of her team-high 15 points. Sophomore guard Stephanie Botkin added 14 for the Cougars, who countered West's zone defense with a patient ball-control offense that melted plenty of clock down the stretch.

Kennedy also finished 11 of 13 from the free-throw line, while West was 13 of 20 from the charity stripe.

C.R. KENNEDY (1-0) - Courtney Strait 3-10 2-2 9, Mariah Simmons 1-8 0-0 2, Paige Hendrickson 2-8 0-0 4, Stephanie Botkin 5-9 4-5 14, Madi Meier 6-8 3-4 15, Sarah Zinser 0-1 0-0 0, Kaylese Johnson 2-5 2-2 7, Jordan Holmes 1-3 0-0 3, Taylor Wagner 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 21-55 11-13 56.

WATERLOO WEST (2-1) - Ashley Hill 1-2 0-1 2, Makayla Stokes 1-2 1-2 3, Haley Puk 2-4 3-7 7, Blaire Thomas 8-15 4-5 20, Zinka Duric 3-7 3-5 10, Ieashia Moore 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-30 13-20 42.

C.R. Kennedy  18 13  7 18 - 56
Waterloo West 11  2 15 14 - 42

3-point goals - C.R. Kennedy 4 (Strait, Botkin, Johnson, Holmes; West 1 (Duric 1). Total fouls - C.R. Kennedy 16, West 11. Fouled out - Hill, West.

KENNEDY SOPHS 51, WEST SOPHS 14

KENNEDY - Alyssa Dunham 7, Sydney Green 5, Jess Wagner 2, Katelyn Dye 11, Abby Hellweg 17, Chase Kofron 3, Tamia Ayoki-Davis 2, Haley Resewehr 4.

WEST - Kortni Pabst 8, Maggie O'Brien 1, Kaia Jones 2, Kaylee Sterick 2, Natalie Fisher 1.