Raiderette middle schoolers tangle with Lenox
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Raiderette middle schoolers tangle with Lenox
The Mount Ayr middle school basketball team played Lenox last week in their first games back since the holiday break.
There, the A team lost to Lenox 29-16 while the B team fell 24-14.
After practicing for a couple of days to ‘knock the rust off’ the Raiderettes got back to action.
The first game started well as Mount Ayr scored eight points in the first quarter. Mount Ayr, however, would find itself trailing by six at halftime and by seven at the end of the third quarter.
Mount Ayr was forced to get aggressive late in the game, which led to some easy baskets by Lenox. The final score was 29-16.
“Lenox played a box-and-one defense on Emma to limit her offensive impact. The other girls were ready to shoot when needed, but not enough of the shots went through the net,” said Mount Ayr coach Josh Vanderflught.
“We continue to work on building confidence in the girls. We know they can beat every team we play, we just need to get their competitive fire burning a little hotter. We have to come out aggressive and confident, making quick decisions. When we play like that, we are a very good team!” he said.
Emma Reynolds and Mackenzie Jackson each had four points for Mount Ayr while Sophia West, Claire Routh, Kate Newton, and Teyanna Combs had two points each.
The second game started very slowly for both teams, with Mount Ayr trailing 4-2 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Raiderettes became very passive and struggled to get anything going. Lenox would lead 16-6 at the half. In the second half, Mount Ayr played fairly evenly with them as each team scored eight points after halftime. The Raiderettes would end up losing the second game, 24-14.
“We know we are better than we showed in this game. Our focus is the same, come out aggressive and confident with quick decisions on the court. We have to bring our best effort and work hard every second we are out there. We will keep working and improving through the last few weeks of the season,” said Vanderflught.
Kenleigh Fooken led Mount Ay with six points and Talyn Greene four. McKinley Vanderflught and Kate Newton each had two points.
The Raiderettes game scheduled for Monday was postponed due to the snowstorm that hit the state Monday and Tuesday. There is a possibility of a make-up the following week, but it is not final on the date yet.
