The Waverly-Shell Rock girls basketball team overwhelmed Fort Dodge 63-30 as the Go-Hawks hosted their season opener Friday, Nov. 22.
Lizzy Frazell scored four 3-pointers early on. Once the Dodgers saw where it was going, the defense magnetized to her. She ended the game scoring 25 points and had three steals.
“Lizzy got off to a great start, had a bunch of points there in the first quarter. We’re going to lean on Lizzy […] offensively,†head coach Greg Bodensteiner said.
“It’s a new offense for us this year, so we know there’s going to be some struggles,†he said. “We created a bunch of points early off of turnovers.â€
Frazell noted the new offense. “I got a lot of shots out of it. A credit to my teammates getting me open because without them I can’t get those shots off,†she said.
Added Coach Bodensteiner: “But the great part was contributions from some of our other kids. That’s going to help offset that, especially if people are […] trying to take Lizzy away.â€
Addy Kruse, who had two 3s, and Hannah Halbach each scored eight points. Sydney Bienemann made seven points and Megan Heyer added six (both 3s) in the opener.
“I was proud of how we powered through our offense,†senior Heyer said. “We kind of struggled with their press in the beginning, but then we started to figure it out and we went strong from there.â€
Among the five seniors lost to graduation were two starting post players who accounted for many of the rebounds, Bodensteiner noted in a forthcoming season preview.
The Go-Hawks totaled 30 rebounds. Brittney Bodensteiner and Kruse pulled down five boards apiece. Aubrey Victor had four.
“Tonight we had opportunities, they hit shots, scored around the rim, we played pretty good in transition. All of those things are going to be important when it gets harder for Lizzy to score,†Bodensteiner said.
“People are going to build their defense around trying to make it hard for Lizzy, we’re going to build our defense around trying to make it easier for Lizzy, but in the meantime kids need to capitalize on that.â€
The team is working to learn the half-court game, he said.
“That was to be expected doing something completely different. It’s going to take time for us to get to where our kids are really comfortable.â€
“It was a good first step for us to have opportunities to execute our offense and try to see some of those things against a different defense.
“I’ve always felt like you can always play really good defense. It doesn’t matter if your offense is good, you have control over energy, effort, rebounding, those types of things, and we did a nice job.â€
A trio led Dodgers scoring — Meah McCaleb, Brooklyn Pommer and LJ Maehl scored 10 apiece with Pommer and Maehl each sinking two threes. McCaleb had six steals. Maehl made five rebounds.
“When we were pressing them, their press break was very good,†Heyer observed. “They would do some switch,†also complimenting their rebounding.
Added Bodensteiner: “The good part tonight was they did some different things against our pressure, so now we have some things on film, we can show our kids, ‘how do we adjust when teams do that?’â€
“We’re going to continue to learn throughout the year, but it was a good start on both ends of the floor for us,†the coach said.
Waverly-Shell Rock 56,
Dubuque Senior, 24
DUBUQUE — The Waverly-Shell Rock girls went on to beat Dubuque Senior 56-24 on Tuesday, Nov. 26, rising to 2-0.
Frazell led with 18 points and three 3-pointers and had five rebounds. Heyer added 12, including four 3s, and four rebounds. Bienemann had nine points and eight rebounds. Kruse had six points and three rebounds. Brittney Bodensteiner had four points and seven rebounds. The Go-Hawks combined for 37 rebounds.
Liz Nielsen led the Rams scoring with six points and two rebounds. Maddie Hoffman had five points and seven rebounds. The team had 27 rebounds.
UP NEXT
The Go-Hawk girls travel to Cedar Rapids Kennedy (0-1) for tip-off at 7:30 p.m. tonight, Dec. 3.
The W-SR boys begin their season tonight at 7:15 p.m. at Marion. The Waverly boys will host Waterloo West at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.
The girls will host Xavier at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7.
Fort Dodge, 30
Waverly-Shell Rock 63
Ft. Dodge: 4, 8, 7, 11 — 30
W-SR: 21, 20, 12, 10 — 63
Waverly-Shell Rock 56,
Dubuque Senior 24
W-SR: 16, 13, 11, 16 — 56
Dbq Sr: 3, 5, 13, 3 — 24
