CADIZ, OH- The Indian Creek girls basketball team headed to take on Harrison Central for a Monday night contest. The Lady Redskins won four out of five games to begin the season. Harrison Central was searching for their first win of the season. Indian Creek was riding high after a huge victory over Martins Ferry. The now (5-1) Redskins left Cadiz with a 61-35 win over the Huskies. Senior forward Kylie Anderson led the way for The Creek with 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Junior guard McKenna Scott dropped in 13 points and five assists. Scott also had an impressive night on defense collecting seven steals.
Indian Creek took the opening tipoff and both teams exchanged points throughout the first quarter. With 2:55 to go in the first, Creek head coach Steve Eft called a timeout with his squad leading 8-7. After the timeout, the Redskins outscored Harrison Central 6-1 to end the quarter. With Indian Creek leading 14-9, the two teams headed into the second quarter. At the 6:11 mark Huskies head coach Chace Smith called a timeout with the score 18-9 in favor of the guests. However, after the timeout, Indian Creek was able to go on a 10-2 scoring run. With a little over two minutes to go in the first half, Indian Creek scored on back to back fast breaks as Tori Robertson was able to break behind the Huskie defenders and McKenna Scott found her twice for the easy layups forcing another Harrison Central timeout with 1:55 to go in the half and the Redskins leading 28-14. The two teams would then exchange points, but the Redskins were able to get the final points of the half at the buzzer. Scott was able to grab a rebound and her team transitioned down the court. She then found Robertson again for a contested layup at the buzzer. Indian Creek took a 32-18 lead after two quarters of play.
The press from Indian Creek proved to be too much for Harrison Central in the first half. The Huskies turned the ball over 12 times to Indian Creek’s three. However, Harrison Central was controlling the boards taking a 20-11 rebound advantage into the locker room. Indian Creek shot 14-23 (61%) from inside the arc but couldn’t find the basket from three point range going 0-8. Coach Eft stated, “We talked about our shooting at the half. We got a little three happy there in the first half, we attempted some threes that I thought weren’t bad shots, but not great shots. Kylie does a great job inside for us and I felt we had the advantage inside tonight, so we really wanted to emphasize pounding the ball inside to her, especially at the start of the third quarter there.”
Coach Eft’s Redskins squad came buzzing out of the locker room to begin the second half on an 11-0 run. “Our girls responded and we took some more rhythm threes in the second half and we were able to knock a couple down,” explained Coach Eft. After a Harrison Central timeout the Huskies were able to stop the run and get two points on the board. Indian Creek however, outscored Harrison Central 18-2 in the third quarter and had a commanding 50-20 lead heading into the final frame.
There’s an old saying that you try and take anything positive you can out of a loss. The Huskies didn’t pay attention to what the score said, but this squad was not going down without a fight. Harrison Central battled hard in the final frame and Coach Smith’s team was able to outscore Indian Creek 15-11 in the final quarter, but the Redskins improved to 5-1 on the season with the 61-35 win.
Senior leader Danica Rensi led the Huskies in points with 13. She was also instrumental on the boards for Harrison Central grabbing nine rebounds and also collected three steals. Junior Maddie Sedgmer had a game high four blocks and also brought down nine rebounds. Senior Angie Ferri had a team high four assists and collected three points.
Anderson and Scott were the leading scorers for Indian Creek. Robertson chipped in with eight points, tied for a team high five assists, grabbed six rebounds and stole the ball three times. Sophomore guard Gabby Taylor collected seven points and two rebounds. Coach Eft commented on his team’s performance, “I thought we started a little sluggish on defense, but we came out strong in the second half. Our ball pressure was better, our rotations were better, so I was really happy with how we started the second half. Overall it was a good night, there’s a few things we’d like to clean up, but they did what we asked them to do. We came out hard in the second half and I’m really proud of that third quarter and how we played there.”
Indian Creek will return home for a contest against St Clairsville this Thursday December 14 while the Huskies will look for their first win of the season as they take on Beaver Local at home on Friday and then stay home on Monday December 18 to take on St Clairsville.
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