It’s no surprise that the young girl’s basketball team would have growing pains, and tonight those pains made them fall to the Kickapoo High School Chiefs 76-41 at Columbia College’s Norm Stewart Classic. The Bruins had trouble finishing all night long, and paired with the lights out three-point shooting from Kickapoo, it was apparent from the beginning RBHS would fall.
Momentum was a hard thing to come by for the girls, as the stout Kickapoo defense was quick to press through the entire game. The strategy worked well for them, as many times the Bruin’s inexperience lead to steals and crippling loose ball opportunities.
Head coach Jill Nagel knew this would be a problem even before the game started from scouting Kickapoo, but even with the preparation it was hard to combat the half court scheme.
“We knew they used a half court press coming in, and we had worked on breaking it in practice,” Coach Nagel said. “But they were able to play their game better than we could play ours. We were able to break the press, but when we couldn’t it was not pretty.”
Still, signs of great potential in sophomores Katey Klucking and Peyton McCallister. Klucking lead the team with 18 points, made even more impressive by the fact that she played the entire last half of the game despite re-dislocating her jaw. McCallister also followed along with the ‘never-say-die’ mentality as she helped direct the offense and keep the team calm from the point guard position.
“I think it’s really important that the underclassmen work hard,” McCallister said. “We have to be able to help the team compete and win games.”
It might seem like the season has already taken a rough turn, but Nagel feels that the team still has much more to show and isn’t willing to give up.
“It’s going to be tough, but we can play better than we played tonight, bottom line,” Coach Nagel said. “It’s just a matter of coming into practice and not allowing ourselves to get frustrated and just find our way. We have a good team that is still getting ready, but it’s early in the year, so we’re just getting started.”