.png)
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Makenna Strycker Mia McKaig Michelle Harding
ROYAL CENTER — Makenna Strycker scored a game-high 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Mia McKaig added 19, and the Pioneer girls basketball team forced 27 Oregon-Davis turnovers as they continued their torrid play with a 52-29 Hoosier North win at The Cage Saturday afternoon.
Strycker hit three 3-pointers, and McKaig nailed five more treys for the Lady Panthers, who won their ninth straight game and improved to 10-7 overall and 3-2 in the Hoosier North.
Sarah Thompson scored 11 points for Oregon-Davis, who fell to 8-7, 1-5.
Already leading 13-11, Pioneer closed the first half on a 13-2 run over the final six minutes to build a 26-13 halftime lead. They led by double digits the entire second half.
Pioneer also stiffened defensively in the third quarter, holding the Lady Bobcats to only two points over the final 6:15 and pushing the lead to 42-20.
Pioneer coach David McWherter said he emphasized three things before the game: win the rebounding battle, get to the free throw line more and win the turnover battle.
They did all three.
“It really surprised me that we did get them to turn the ball over that much,” McWherter said. “I thought they were going to be a little tougher at being able to take care of the basketball, but our girls stepped up and did a good job on that. They put pressure on them and made them feel uncomfortable at times and so forth.”
The Pioneer transition game triggered the second-quarter run. Strycker found Avery Haselby in transition for a layup after a turnover, and Strycker followed with a steal and a layup to make it 17-11.
Thompson knocked down a 15-footer for O-D, but McKaig nailed a 3 from the top of the key, and Kynzie Hathaway split a pair of free throws to get the lead to eight. Another McKaig 3-pointer off a Strycker assist got the lead to double digits, and Strycker hit a pullup 10-footer with five seconds left in the half to make it a 13-point game.
Oregon-Davis played a matchup zone, but Pioneer utilized skip passes to kind open 3-point looks for McKaig, who was coming off a career-high 21 points in her previous game against Frontier on Thursday.
This time, McKaig outscored the entire O-D team 14-13 in the first half.
“It wasn’t on purpose, but … we do a lot of practicing the skip passes around the perimeter,” Strycker said. “We do a lot of drive in, skip out and then kick to the top, and that’s just what we happen to get in the games a lot because it’s what we’re doing in practice and what coach McWherter is implementing. And it works when we’re playing (against a) zone.”
Strycker hit a 3, scored on a putback and had another steal and layup in the third quarter.
Strycker said she is much more focused on her rebounding this year.
“When I see someone shoot and I’m not at the top and supposed to get back, I just go,” Strycker said. “It’s kind of like math. You’ve got to pick which side you’re going be on, you’ve got to predict where the ball’s going, and then you just grab it and come down strong. It helps a lot to win games. It helps a lot to get offensive rebound points. It’s a game changer.
McKaig hit another 3, and Hannah Zeigler, Michelle Harding and Haselby also had buckets.
“I’ve said it before,” McWherter said. “It’s pretty easy to coach when Mia and Makenna are hitting shots for us. It makes us look pretty darn good. They do a really good of taking care of the basketball, and the supporting cast around them with Kynzie and Avery and Juju (Julia McGrew) and Michelle and Hannah have just been getting it done and getting them the ball and helping them out as much as possible. … We’re getting the job done, and we’re playing extremely well together.”
Pioneer 52, Oregon-Davis 29
OREGON-DAVIS (29) (8-7, 1-5)
Trinity Vaszari 0 0-0 0, Gabriella Krause 3 0-0 8, Madison Zelaya 0 0-0 0, Ashleigh Laster 2 1-2 5, Sarah Thompson 4 3-4 11, Eva Young 0 0-0 0, Eryn MacMillan 2 0-0 5
TEAM: 11 4-6 29
PIONEER (52) (10-7, 3-2)
Makenna Strycker 7 3-4 20, Mia McKaig 6 2-2 19, Julia McGrew 0 0-0 0, Kynzie Hathaway 0 1-2 1, Hannah Zeigler 1 2-2 4, Avery Haselby 3 0-0 6, Madyson Shaffer 0 0-0 0, Michelle Harding 1 0-0 2, Leah Zeigler 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 18 8-10 52
Three-point field goals:
Oregon-Davis 3 (Krause 2, MacMillan),
Pioneer 8 (McKaig 5, Strycker 3)
Total fouls: Oregon-Davis 11, Pioneer 6
Turnovers: Oregon-Davis 27, Pioneer 11
Score by quarters
Oregon-Davis 9 4 7 9 – 29
Pioneer 10 16 16 10 – 52
Comments