Posted: 12/11/07
Warrior girls take it to Southland 58-35
 The Warriors Brianna Vick got tangled up with two Southland defenders during Caledonia's 58-35 win last Friday night. (Photo by Reed Welch) |
By Daniel McGonigle
Argus Managing Editor
As blowouts go, the first half of the Caledonia vs. Southland girls basketball game wasn't too dissimilar from a Spurs T-Wolves game, circa 2007 season of course.
Up by 29 at the break, the Warrior girls played solid defense holding Southland to just six points in the first half, and then cruised for an easy 58-35 win.
"We started out very well, getting our offense going and stopping them on defense," said head coach Scott Sorenson. "The score at halftime was 35-6. We really played well, especially on our press."
Sorenson said the team put a lot of emphasis on the full-court press and it paid off.
"We really focus on putting a lot of full court pressure on other teams so they are rushed into taking bad shots and forcing passes," said Sorenson. "It was evident tonight that we really were able to do that as we ended the night with 19 steals and that really came in the first half as we pulled our press off and focused on our half court defense in the second half."
A nice luxury to have, practicing other areas of your game within a competitive format, while sustaining a large enough lead--the good teams always find things to improve upon.
"I was really happy with our ability to stay focused on getting better, with such a lopsided score," said the coach. "We did not shoot especially great from the floor, and had a few too many turnovers, but that happens in games like this. We just need to get back to taking care of the ball this week as we hit a stretch of very tough opponents."
The numbers on the scoreboard, meant getting a nice rotation of players into the game to serve as an early season evaluation of the entire team.
"It is nice to have games like this once in a while, to see how everyone plays at the varsity level, and every player really stepped up and played well," said Sorenson. "We stress focusing on the fundamental things that we can control, like boxing out, hustling and playing solid defense, and we did most of those things tonight."
With a mascot moniker like "Warriors," the team better be intense.
"We have the ability to take other teams out of what they are trying to do with our intensity, we just need to keep getting better at it and staying consistent," said Sorenson. "Overall it was a fun game for us."
Quick stats
Cassie Gran led all scorers with 16 points. She also had eight rebounds and two steals. Sarah Colleran scored 12 points and had one rebound and six steals. Megan King had five points on the night, while Aly Meyer and Laquita Becker each scored four points.
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