By Sam Jack
TSnews
The Goddard Lions hosted the Eisenhower Tigers last Tuesday, Jan. 11, beating the crosstown rivals 55-30.
Lions head coach Marcus James said his team wanted to bounce back after a tough loss against Andover Central.
“Defensively, we wanted to give them some problems, and we have our full court pressure package, and then the half court, where we felt like we matched up well,” James said. “That’s what really separated us. At one point in the first part of the second quarter, it was 13-12, their lead, and then we started pressuring them and really took off.”
The Lions outscored the Tigers 19-7 in the second quarter and had a 27-13 lead at halftime. They again outscored the Tigers in the third quarter, 15-3, to put the game out of reach.
“Last year, they beat us by double digits both times,” James noted. “So it was something that our girls take a lot of pride in, and this community showed up really well to watch the game.”
Tigers head coach Matt Brumley noted that the Lions’ Maycee James has improved a lot since last year. James had 19 points to lead all scorers.
“And you know, we went in there and turned the ball over 28 times, and I believe our shooting percentage was in the mid-20s, so that is not a good recipe for success,” Brumley said. “We didn’t play very well, and we’re still looking for those girls to step up and somebody take a leadership role on the offensive end.”
Goddard: Maycee James 19, Lauryn Gordon 13, Marayah Coleman 12, Bailey Scoggin 6, Reece Albin 5.
Eisenhower: Carly Dameron 15, Addison Verbeck 7, Taylor Burkholder 3, Emilee Hollinger 3, McKenzie Henry 2.
3s power Mustangs to win over Goddard
Hot three-point shooting helped power the Salina Central Mustangs to a win over Goddard last Friday, 64-36. The Mustangs scored 11 threes, and senior Hampton Williams made five out of six attempts.
“I don’t even think NBA teams or the bluebloods of college basketball shoot like that,” James said. “There’s two things that have to happen to compete with shooting like that, you have to go bucket for bucket – and we didn’t – or you’ve got to get people in foul trouble and get them out of the game. We tried the latter, but they kind of let us play a little bit, so there wasn’t a whole lot of calls that were made on either side.”
“They’ve got three Division 1 girls on their team, and that’s a tough ask for any team,” James added.
The Lions hosted Maize South on Tuesday. Look for results in next week’s paper.
Goddard: Maycee James 20, Lauryn Gordon 6, Marayah Coleman 6, Reece Albin 4.
Valley Center beats Eisenhower
The Valley Center Hornets beat Eisenhower 39-30 on Friday, Jan 14.
“Defensively, I thought we were fine,” Brumley said. “Offensively, we struggled again to score the basketball.”
The two teams were within a few points of one another throughout most of the game. Brumley said his team allowed the opponents too many offensive rebounds, and that cost them.
“You’re not going to be successful if you allow teams to have two or three looks at the basket each time they go down the floor. I think that’s what it really boils down to,” he said. “The bright spot is we had girls coming off the bench that played well. It was nice to have some young girls step up and help us out.”
The Tigers played at Hutchinson on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Look for results in next week’s paper.
Eisenhower: McKenzie Henry 8, Catherine Eddy 5, Taylor Burkholder 5, Hannah Bedore 4, Addison Verbeck 4, Carly Dameron 4.
