By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
CANTON – It has been a busy week for the Canton/Galva girls as they had road games on both Monday and Tuesday where they lost one in a heartbreaker by two points before dropping the second game by 19.
For the season, the Lady Eagles are now 3-16 as they have a week off to rest and prep for their regular season finale at home hosting Goessel.
On Monday, the Lady Eagles made a trip south to play Southern Coffey County and despite leading much of the final three quarters, let the game slip away for a two-point, 54-52 loss.
On Tuesday, Canton/Galva went on the road again for a game at Wichita Homeschool and after leading early went into a scoring drought and lost by 19, 52-33.
Summary of the two games:
Monday, the Lady Eagles trailed by four, 13-9 at the end of the first quarter before putting 16 points on the scoreboard in the second quarter while holding Southern Coffey County to just nine, giving the Lady Eagles a slim, three-point, 25-22, advantage heading to the halftime break.
After the Lady Eagles pushed their lead out to eight at 43-35 by the end of the third quarter, Southern Coffey County bounced back and put 19 points in the scorebook in the final eight minutes while holding the Lady Eagles to under 10 at nine, giving them the final two-point heartbreaking loss.
“Our girls came out and competed against a tough Southern Coffey team that plays in a very tough league that has several state ranked teams,” pointed out Lady Eagle head coach Brad Crump during his post-game reflections. “We knew they wanted to shoot the three ball and we did well in the first half getting a hand in the shooters face. We challenged the girls at half to come out and win the third quarter and we did win it, even ended up going up by 10-12 points before leading by eight at the end of the third quarter. They (Southern Coffey County) then hot from the outside and we had to draw up some late game situation plays at timeouts. We were pleased how the girls executed them, but disappointed that we let this one get away from us when we had it in control. I do feel we gained some valuable experience late in the ball game that will help us become a better team.”
The heart-breaking loss overshadowed a huge game by Mimi Craig as she led the Lady Eagles with 24 points while Brecken Pearson pitched in with 13 thanks to hitting on three three-pointers. The Lady Eagles hit a total of seven three-pointers on the night.
LADY EAGLES 9 16 18 9 = 52
So. Coffey County 13 9 13 19 = 54
No Team Stats were Available.
CANTON/GALVA LADY EAGLES SCORING LEADERS (52 total points): Mimi Craig – 24; Brecken Pearson – 13; Lily Espinoza – 7; Sage Toews – 6; Red Craig – 2. 3-POINTERS MADE (7): Pearson – 3; Espinoza, Toews – 2.
Tuesday in Wichita, the Lady Eagles jumped out early and took a seemingly commanding eight-point, 12-4 lead by the end of the first quarter before Wichita Homeschool poured 19 points on the board in the second quarter while Canton/Galva went into a deep scoring drought with just three points, giving the home team an eight-point, 23-15 lead at the halftime break.
Coming out of the intermission the scoring drought continued for Canton/Galva and they fell behind by 23 by the beginning of the final quarter where they were able to chip a few points off the lead but still lost by 19.
“We came out of the gate and were getting good looks at the basket,” noted head coach Crump. “From the films I watched, I knew they lived and died from behind the arc, and they started out cold, but did they heat up, think they ended up hitting a dozen three’s on the night while we couldn’t buy a basket once they got hot and then ran out of gas.”
No Lady Eagle hit double digits in scoring though Mimi Craig came close with eight while Brecken Pearson, Lily Espinoza, and Red Craig each had six. Pearson once again hit a couple of three-pointers.
Closing out his reflections on the trip to Wichita, Coach Crump said, “We were in foul trouble most of the night and then we lost Brecken (Pearson) in the third quarter to an ankle injury, and we only had seven girls with us. We ended up having two girls fouling out and unfortunately had to end the game playing four on four. I appreciated the Wichita coach pulling a girl out and playing just four-on-four the last few minutes. I though Emma Herrera came off the bench and played tough while gaining some valuable experience.”
LADY EAGLES 12 3 2 16 = 33
Wichita Homeschool 4 19 17 12 = 52
No Team Stats were Available.
CANTON/GALVA LADY EAGLES INDIVIDUAL SCORING (33 total points): Mimi Craig – 8; Brecken Pearson – 6; Lily Espinoza – 6; Red Craig – 6; Sage Toews – 5; Emma Herrera – 2. 3-POINTERS MADE (3): Pearson – 2; Espinoza – 1.