Westwood seized control of its non-conference game with South O’Brien in the third quarter and went on to beat the Wolverines 48-23 December 9 at Sloan. The Rebels led by four heading into halftime but outscored the visitors 22-2 over the next eight minutes. With the loss, South O’Brien’s record fell to 0-5.
“I was very pleased with our defensive effort against Westwood,” remarked Wolverine head coach DJ Hansen. “They are a team who usually puts up scores in the 60s or 70s so holding them to the 40s was a big morale victory for our team. The first half their girls missed quite a few shots but we were able to rebound the misses and hold them to one shot. We went into halftime trailing 14-10. We knew they would come out fired up in the third quarter and they did. Even though our girls did not back down, the game just got away from us during the third quarter. It was a tough week in the win-loss column for us but we improved greatly throughout the week. Saturday, Marissa Ebel did a great job of scoring inside for us. She racked up eight points. Addison Hedberg scored five for us and really did a great job of handling the ball against their pressure. We will continue to work on our offensive skills and find some ways to score the ball.”
The Wolverines were charged with 40 turnovers and shot 25 percent with eight buckets in 32 tries. They were 2-of-14 from beyond the arc and 5-of-8 at the free throw line. Westwood was 16-of-53 from the field for 30 percent. The Rebels connected on seven of 27 three-point tries and 10 of 14 charity tosses.
The Wolverines got three points from both Reese Farquhar and Jaylah Jackson and two each from Lindsey Einck and Makenna Wallin. Hedberg and Wallin each supplied two assists.
Farquhar grabbed nine rebounds and made three steals. Einck and Ebel each collected seven caroms and Einck stole the ball twice. Westwood was guilty of 17 turnovers.
S. O’Brien
4 6 2 11 – 23
Westwood
9 5 22 12 – 48