By Staff
FAIRFIELD – It continues to be a season of major improvement for the Canton/Galva girls as they not only won their second game at the Fairfield Falcon Tournament on Thursday, they qualified for the tournament championship game as well with their 56-43 win over host Fairfield.
The win is also the fifth in a row for the Lady Eagles as they improve to 9-5 for the season while prepping for the Falcon Tournament Championship game on Friday against Independent.
“This is just the kind of game we needed to see how far we have come,” explained Lady Eagle head coach Brad Willems. “Fairfield is a good team that plays hard and is coached well. They kept coming and we kept responding. I could not have been prouder of our girls! The atmosphere was great.”
After trailing by one, 13-12, at the end of the first quarter, Canton/Galva pulled out to a four-point, 22-18 lead of their own by the halftime break. Coming out of the intermission the Lady Eagles extended their advantage to 11 at 39-28 by the finish of the third quarter before cruising in for the final 13-point victory.
Trinity Espinoza led the Lady Eagles in scoring with 18 while Mimi Craig had 12 and Lili Espinoza chipped in with eight. Brecken Pearson had an across the board solid game as she scored seven points, plus leading the team by dishing out seven assists and making four steals. Pearson and Trinity Espinoza each shared the team lead in rebounds by grabbing nine each.
Coach Willems concluded his post-game reflections by adding, “The first half was pretty even going back-and-forth. I told the girls we really had not played our best basketball yet, we actually had the lead. They ran with it and had a great second half! We still need to continue to get better at our rebounding and at times we did get a little careless with the ball, but the effort was really good tonight. Our defense causes people to be uncomfortable and to make quick decisions. We keep getting better and better with every game at being able to control the chaos.”
CANTON/GALVA LADY EAGLES vs.
SCORING: LADY EAGLES > 12-10-17-17 = 56; Fairfield > 13-5-10-15 = 43.
TEAM STATS: LADY EAGLES > 2-FGs – 18/43; 3-PTs – 4/19; FTs – 8/16; AST – 16; REBs – 30; TO – 16; STLs – 17; BLKs – 0; FLs – N/A. Fairfield > 2-FGs – 15/38; 3-PTs – 1/11; FTs – 10/25; AST – 8; REBs – 45; TO – 22; STLs – 7; BLKs – 7; FLs – 14.
LADY EAGLE INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS: Scoring > Trinity Espinoza – 18; Mimi Craig – 12; Lili Espinoza – 8; Brecken Pearson – 7; Adi Alcala – 7; Red Craig – 4. 3-Pointers Made > T. Espinoza – 2; Pearson, Alcala – 1. Assists > Pearson – 7; L. Espinoza – 3; M. Craig, Alcala – 2. Rebounds > T. Espinoza, Pearson – 9; M. Craig, L. Espinoza – 4; Alcala – 3. Steals > Pearson – 4; T. Espinoza, M. Craig, L. Espinoza, Alcala – 3.
(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)