It was a first quarter to dream of as South O’Brien hosted Trinity Christian December 14 at Paullina. With their pressing defense setting up the offense, the Wolverines led 16-0 after one and went on to pick up a 45-27 win, their first of the season.
“We started out by doing a man-to-man press and dropping back into a 2-3,” explained South O’Brien head coach Erica Dreckman. “This allowed us to make them feel pressured and have to figure out what defense we were in. It allowed us to get some turnovers and make some easy shots to get ahead in the first quarter.”
The home team led 28-7 at halftime, but far from resting on their laurels, they bumped the third quarter lead up to 25 points at 32-7. “We talked about having a lead and still not letting up in the second half,” said Dreckman.
Willa Sickelka accounted for eight of the Wolverines 15 steals as the Tigers turned the ball over 32 times in the War Eagle Conference match-up. On the offensive side, Alyssa Van Beek finished with 14 points, Riley Draper and Sickelka with eight each, Abby Schreck with six, Taja Conley with five and Kenna Bauer with four.
South O’Brien was good on 18 of its 53 field goal attempts for 34 percent. Trinity attempted 36 shots and made just eight to finish at 22 percent. Four of those Tiger baskets were of the three-point variety. The Wolverines were 5-of-22 from beyond the arc and 4-of-11 at the charity stripe. Trinity sank seven of their 17 foul shots.
Sickelka led South O’Brien in assists with six and in rebounds with 13. The Wolverines grabbed 25 rebounds in all and were guilty of 20 turnovers.
Trinity
0 7 11 9 – 27
S. O’Brien
16 12 13 4 – 45