Basketball Teams Split First Round Games
Boys Win; Girls Lose
The opening round of the Brewster Sagebrush Classic Basketball Tournament was held on Monday evening, December 7th. The Indians defeated the Triplains Vikings by a score of 59-38. The Lady Indians lost to the Brewster Lady Dawgs by a five point margin, 42-47.
The Indian boys team jumped out to an early 8-0 lead over the Triplains Vikings and never trailed in the contest. Triplains cut the early lead to 11-7, but several consecutive baskets by Garret Figgins gave the Indians a 24-11 advantage by the end of the first quarter. Garrett scored eleven points in the period. The Indians led 34-23 by halftime.
In the second half, St. Francis extended their lead to 46-27 by the end of the third period and went on to win the game by 21 points, 59-38.
Matt Raile led the Indians in scoring with 22 points. Garrett Figgins had 15.
Coach Beims made the had the
following observations about the game: "Overall, I was
pleased with our effort against Triplains. We shot 56% from the
field, due mainly to the fact that we got the ball inside and
worked the offensive boards which gave us some high percentage
looks at the basket. We struggled defensively to stop dribble
penetration in the lane, and that hurt us at times, and we need to
get better at controlling rebounds that we get our hands on."
"We did a good job of getting out in transition when the
opportunity presented itself, and handled their pressure pretty
well. I like the fact that we are not relying so much on the 3
point shot this year, but I didn’t really want it to disappear
entirely from our arsenal. We have a few real good shooters on our
team, and they need to start looking for their shots a little more.
In the end though, I think we are close to putting it all
together."
In girls action, the Lady Indians had a difficult first half. The team committed many turnovers and missed most of their attempted shots. Even so, the Lady Indians only trailed 0-5 and 4-11 early and the team had cut the lead to three (8-11) by the first quarter break. Throughout the first half, and especially in the second period, the Lady Indians were plagued by turnovers and poor shooting which allowed Lady Dawgs to extend the lead to 29-15 by halftime,
The Lady Indians played much better in the second half. The lead was cut to eight (33-25) part way through the third, but Brewster led 41-29 at the quarter break. The Lady Indians continued to play hard and cut the lead to three points (39-42) with 5:09 remaining. It looked like the Lady Indians would complete a comeback win when the game's leading scorer, Brewster's Michelle Erskine, fouled out with 1:22 to go. Unfortunately, the Lady Indians missed several field goal attempts and free throws in the last few minutes of play and were not able to complete the comeback. The Lady Indians lost by a score closer than the game itself, 42-47.
Erskine led all scorers with 24 points. The Indians were led in scoring by Kaitlin Figgins with 13 and Sarah Trembly with 12 points respectively. The Lady Indians were 3-15 from the free throw line for the game. Brewster went 18-27 from the stripe.
The teams will now play on Thursday evening in Brewster. The girls will play Stratton, CO at 6:00 PM. The boys will play Cheylin at 7:30 PM.
