Akron-Westfield scored the first 20 points of the game in its match-up with South O’Brien and led 20-1 after one quarter. The Westerners went on to record a 57-29 win November 28 at Paullina. The loss dropped the Wolverines to 0-2 on the young season.
“We came out flat and played lackadaisical,” stated Wolverine head coach DJ Hansen. “I take responsibility and not doing a good job of setting a good pre-game routine for us. We’re going to address that to make sure we’re ready to go for our next games.”
The coach pinpointed a shortcoming in the South O’Brien attack. “We really struggled with our half court zone offense,” said Hansen. “We had trouble driving into gaps and putting the defense in tough situations. We really played on our heels. We were disappointed with the loss.”
Following the poor start, the Wolverines came back to outscore Akron-Westfield 13-5 in quarter number two. “After the first quarter we actually settled down and ended up winning the second quarter,” noted Hansen. “We calmed down and took better care against the press and we were able to move the ball around a little on offense. Addison Hedberg had a big game for us. She hit some threes in the second quarter to give us a little spark. She made a huge play getting an and-one three-pointer and she made the free throw for the full four-point play. We also had good production from one of our bench players, Jaylah Jackson. She got us 10 points and a bunch of rebounds.”
Hedberg finished with nine points and Jackson contributed eight rebounds. The rebounding leader was Lindsey Einck with 10 boards. Marissa Ebel and Reese Farquhar each scored three points while Abby Woodall and Makenna Wallin added two points apiece. Four assists came from Abby Nelson and three from Farquhar. Jackson blocked two shots and Nelson and Einck each made a pair of steals.
The Westerners, who shot 39 percent for the game, were paced by Makenzie Hughes and her 27 points. “Akron are a really good team,” praised Hansen. “Makenzie Hughes is just a stud. Not many girl basketball players can do what she can do. I was really impressed with the other players from Akron as well. Their shooting has improved tremendously from last year.”
South O’Brien went 12-of-42 from the floor to shoot 29 percent. The Wolverines committed 31 turnovers compared to just five for Akron-Westfield.
A-W
20 5 14 18 – 57
S. O’Brien
1 13 5 10 – 29