MHS girls pull away from Chase County
The Marion High School varsity girls' basketball team used balanced scoring and tenacious defense Friday, as they came away with a 51-37 win over Chase County at Marion High School Gymnasium.
"They did a lot of things well," said Marion head coach Daryl Enos. "I was extremely pleased."
The Lady Warrior defense was dominating, forcing 31 Chase County turnovers, and limiting the Lady Bulldogs to 22 percent shooting.
Enos noted his squad turned up the defensive pressure as the game progressed.
"I didn't know what our endurance level was going to be with our starters, so we started a little slow on that," he acknowledged.
"Our weak side defense was a little thin, but we applied pretty good pressure throughout the game," Enos said.
The Lady Warriors displayed consistency on offense as they gradually pulled away from Chase County, leading 11-9 at the close of the first quarter, 24-17 at halftime, and 37-25 at the end of the third quarter.
Marion shooters hit 36 percent of their shots, including a sizzling eight of 17 from three-point range.
Julia Zeiner led a balanced scoring attack with nine points, followed by Erin Carr and Kalaya Jackson, with eight each, and Lindsay Hett added seven. Kimber Hardey and Lauren Helmer chipped in six each.
"I was wondering who was going to do the scoring for us," Enos said.
"I think my question has been answered," he continued. "We don't have to rely on one or two people, and I like that.
"Teams are going to have to play defense against all of us," he concluded.
The Lady Warriors suffered a blow in the first half when Austin Percell went down with a broken collar bone.
"She was another good sub for us," Enos said. "She did a great job down inside for us when she was in there."
While Percell likely will not return until January, Enos was still upbeat about the contributions of his entire bench.
"I thought we did a great job substituting kids in and out," he said. "All around, it was a pretty good team effort, and everybody had some individual highlights."
Enos acknowledged his team had a few shortcomings, which have been the focus of preparation for Tuesday night's game against Inman.
"We need to see the floor a bit better, but that will come with more games under our belt," he observed. "Rebounding was kind of thin, and our free throw percentage (37.5 percent) was poor."
The Lady Warriors hosted Inman Tuesday in first-round action of the Inman invitational tournament. The squad will play two more tournament games in Inman, facing St. John Thursday, followed by Garden Plain on Friday.
