Spotlight Game: Norris at Elkhorn
When two familiar foes meet early in the season, games tend to turn into slugfests. Friday night’s Eastern Midlands Conference battle between perhaps the two preseason favorites, Elkhorn and Norris, turned into exactly that. Elkhorn jumped out to a quick…
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Continue ReadingWhen two familiar foes meet early in the season, games tend to turn into slugfests. Friday night’s Eastern Midlands Conference battle between perhaps the two preseason favorites, Elkhorn and Norris, turned into exactly that.
Elkhorn jumped out to a quick 8-0 three minutes into the game, and then survived a tough offensive night to pull out a 32-23 victory over the visiting Titans.
“I think that their length in their zone bothered us,” Elkhorn head coach Jen Wragge said. “We practiced against a 1-3-1 in practice, but we can’t replicate that height. It took us about three quarters to figure that out, so we went in and tried to attack their inside more.”
“Down 8-0, and then we struggle to hit shots. They took away our strength, and we had some other kids try to step up, but but we couldn’t hit any perimeter shots,” stated Norris head coach Mark Hagerman.
Hampering the efforts of Norris’s offense was also the foul trouble of 6’0″ all-state post player Breanna Stai, a Central Missouri commit, who battled foul trouble all night long, picking up her fourth foul a minute into the third quarter. Stai finished with six points and eight rebounds, with five of those rebounds on the offensive end.
“It was huge not having one of our major scoring threats out there, next to us on the bench,” Hagerman explained. “She got some offensive rebounds and free throw opportunities late, but we just didn’t have enough time.”
With Stai limited by foul trouble, the Titans also struggled with perimeter play. One starting guard and lone senior Taryn Tracy is still recovering from an ACL injury this summer, and her back court mate, junior Molly Ramsey, was limited to three minutes with shin splints. Shooting a collective 3-25 from three point range equated a tough night for Norris.
Taking over the game for Elkorn was senior and Maryville (MO) signee Maddy Meehan, who led the Antlers with 18 points and eight rebounds. Norris closed to within five at 28-23 with 1:30 left, but Meehan hit four clutch free throws to seal the win for the Antlers.
“She’s so much more calm,” Houchin said about her senior leader. “She used to just do things out of instinct, but she knew at the end of the game to slow things down. She also has the confidence to know that there are going to be times when she needs to put us on her shoulders.”
There is a good chance that this will not be the last time that these teams meet, as the conference tournament will be coming in the last week in January. Both teams, with a young core, will greatly improve over the next few weeks.
“They’re a good team. We just gotta regroup,” Hagerman said.