SILVER LAKE — Coming out of the holiday break, it’s only natural for a coach to be concerned about his team being rusty offensively.
And facing an undefeated Rossville team in Tuesday’s return to the court, Silver Lake coach Loren Ziegler was certainly a bit anxious.
“We had a couple of average practices (over the break),” Ziegler said, then added, ”but we’ve got a pretty focused team. They’re a veteran group who’s been through the wars and know what it takes.”
Those veteran Eagles quickly put Ziegler’s mind at ease. After missing three of its first four shots, Silver Lake hardly missed the mark the rest of the way.
A string of four straight makes got the Eagles going and the offense looked in postseason form as No. 1 Silver Lake easily handled the battle of unbeatens with a 73-49 rout of visiting Rossville. The Eagles improved to 5-0 overall and 3-0 in Mid-East League play.
“We had some lapses defensively, but that’s because Rossville’s so good,” Ziegler said. “But our intensity level was good and our execution level was really good.”
It didn’t take long for that execution to hit full rhythm and it was a trio of seniors who got it going. Alexis Gifford hit her first five shots of the game and never really cooled off, gouging the Rossville defense with 3-of-6 accuracy from 3-point range to complement slashing drives to the basket. She finished with 27 points, hitting 9 of 14 shots overall.
Madison Wegner added 12 of her 14 points in the first half, seven coming in the second quarter when the Eagles blew open the game with a 20-6 quarter to build a 36-18 halftime lead. Rachel Heiman added 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Silver Lake finished the game making 29 of 51 shots overall.
“We forced them to play at our speed, in catch-up mode, and that’s what we want,” Ziegler said. “Lexie got us off to a good start and we got into a good flow and we had a lot of good things happen offensively, which helped our defense.”
Rossville fell to 6-1 and was led by Amanda Hill’s 13 points.
ROSSVILLE BOYS 37, SILVER LAKE 34 — A thing of beauty it was not.
But given Rossville hadn’t won at Silver Lake in more than a half decade, well, beauty took on different meaning for the Bulldawgs.
“We’ll take them any way we can get them,” Rossville coach Derek Dick said. “We haven’t won here in like six years, so it’s good to get one here. The thing I like about our kids and their kids is they just competed so hard and even when it’s ugly like it was tonight, they still competed because they don’t like to lose.”
Tied 20-20 at the half, Rossville opened the second half with a 5-0 run that proved to be a significant offensive burst on Tuesday night. Jacob Bradshaw scored all five points in the run that put the Bulldawgs ahead for good.
Rossville never led by more than six and didn’t do a lot to put the Eagles away, missing five of six free throws in the final 1:55, including the front end of three one-and-one situations.
But Silver Lake couldn’t take advantage, going 2 for 9 on its final shots.
Bradshaw led all scorers with 12 points.
SILVER LAKE GIRLS 73, ROSSVILLE 49
Rossville 12 6 18 13 — 49
Silver Lake 16 20 22 15 — 73
Rossville (6-1, 0-1) — Nitsch 3-10 0-0 8, Steckel 2-9 0-0 4, Conley 5-8 1-2 11, Day 1-6 0-0 2, A. Hill 6-14 0-0 13, S. Shinn 2-4 0-0 4, Porter 0-1 0-0 0, C. Hill 1-3 0-0 2, L. Shinn 1-3 3-5 5, Buhler 0-1 0-0 0, Badura 0-0 0-0 0, Kirk 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-59 4-7 49.
Silver Lake (5-1, 3-0) — White 2-3 0-0 4, Wegner 5-12 2-2 14, Heiman 8-11 0-1 16, Gifford 9-14 6-9 27, Yoder 2-4 0-0 4, Calderwood 1-1 0-0 3, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Lane 0-1 1-2 1, Krogman 0-1 0-0 0, Burkhardt 0-1 0-0 0, Bates 2-3 0-0 4, Fischer 0-0 0-0 0, Mountain 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-51 9-14 73.
3-pointers — Rossville 3-7 (Nitsch 2-3, A. Hill 1-2, Steckel 0-1, Buhler 0-1); Silver Lake 6-16 (Gifford 3-6, Wegner 2-6, Calderwood 1-1, White 0-1, Lane 0-1, Burkhardt 0-1). Total fouls — Rossville 16, Silver Lake 13. Fouled out — none.
ROSSVILLE BOYS 37, SILVER LAKE 34
Rossville 8 12 10 7 — 37
Silver Lake 8 12 5 9 — 34
Rossville (5-2, 1-0) — Roduner 2-5 3-5 8, Schumacher 1-7 0-2 2, Bradshaw 4-6 4-6 12, Horak 2-8 0-2 5, Hammes 1-3 1-3 3, Dyche 0-2 0-0 0, Mason 2-3 0-0 4, Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Morris 1-4 0-0 3. Totals 13-38 8-18 37.
Silver Lake (3-2, 2-1) — Hallacy 2-12 3-4 7, Koelzer 0-2 0-0 0, Wagner 2-9 0-0 4, Griffin 3-8 1-1 7, Adams 1-2 1-2 3, Byrne 1-2 0-0 2, Baird 3-6 3-6 9, Matzke 1-2 0-2 2. Totals 13-443 8-15 34.
3-pointers — Rossville 3-14 (Roduner 1-1, Horak 1-6, Morris 1-4, Dyche 0-2, Mason 0-1); Silver Lake 0-16 (Hallacy 0-7, Griffin 0-4, Wagner 0-3, Koelzer 0-2). Total fouls — Rossville 18, Silver Lake 18. Fouled out — none.
