The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

It’s that time of the year, BASKETBALL. Pioneer teams traveled to the Hi-Line this past weekend to participate in the Hi-Line Tournament. The Lady Pioneers first played North Toole and won 58-43, then turned around and played Augusta the next day and won 58-16. The Lady Pioneers start the year off 2-0.

Travis Baumann, head coach of the Lady Pioneers, said, “In our first game of the year on Friday against Sunburst from the 10C, we came out with some jitters and struggled to shoot the ball as we would have liked, but our defense played decent, causing turnovers. Two girls had double-doubles. Yeadon did it with points and rebounds, while Baumann did it with points and assists. Every player played on Friday in our victory.”

In their first match-up against North Toole, the Lady Pioneers got up and down the floor like they hadn’t skipped a beat from last year. The Lady Pioneers looked aggressive from the start with great ball pressure and press. The Lady Pioneers started with some steals from Eva Yeadon. Keira Galbavy and Jenny Sant. Eva also made three-pointers early in the game and an assist to Jai Baumann for a nice take to the basket and layup for two points. Eva dominated the boards in the first quarter, getting four nice rebounds to push the ball up the floor and attack the basket. North Toole had difficulty keeping up with the pace and intensity of the Lady Pioneers but still found ways to score some tough buckets. The Lady Pioneers were up after the 1st quarter 16-13.

The 2nd quarter was more like the first, but the Lady Pioneers did find themselves turning the ball over a bit more, but always found a way to get it back defensively with more steals from Jenny and Eva. Keira and Carmen Tan had some drives for scores, and Jenny had some nice jumpers for some points. North Toole did a good job fighting back when they got down and found a way, only to be down seven going into halftime with a score of 30-23, with the Lady Pioneers up.

In the 3rd quarter, they started a bit slow for both teams, with the first bucket coming after two minutes of the quarter by an Eva steal and layup. Jai also knocked a three-pointer and got a steal as well. Lainey Terry also knocked down a three-pointer, catapulting the Lady Pioneers to a 19-point lead after the end of the 3rd quarter. The Lady Pioneers ball pressure on defense was hard for the Lady Miners to handle. North Toole tried to come back in the 4th quarter and put in the work to get back into the game, but the Lady Pioneers hustle and tenacity was just too much, and the Lady Pioneers ended up winning the ball game by 15 points, with a score of 58-43.

Against Sunburst, Eva Yeadon had 28 points and 12 rebounds, Jai Baumann had 12 points and 10 assists, and Alex Worrall had eight rebounds and seven points. According to the stats, Big Sandy had ten steals and nine turnovers.

“On Saturday,” according to Travis, “we played another 10c in Augusta, who was missing their all-State player in Peyton Levine. Our defense was smothering, and our shooting was better than Friday. Every varsity player played meaningful minutes on Saturday. Yeadon and Baumann led the Lady Pioneers in scoring for the second straight game, but it was the defense of the entire ten players on the team that made the difference in the game.”

The next day, the Lady Pioneers came out with great attitudes and a hard work ethic, which showed from the beginning. The Lady Pioneers dominated the boards from the get-go, and Augusta had a hard time adjusting and keeping up. All five starters contributed throughout the game but started being aggressive with significant attacks to the basket, nice jumpers, post moves, running the floor, and getting fast break layups. Jai and Jenny had great passes for assists, while Eva and Keira finished strong going to the basket. Lainey also had some great shots, all five adding to the total after the first quarter with the Lady Pioneers up 23-6.

The Lady Pioneers got to utilize the whole team, and everyone had a significant role in the team’s success. Elaina Weaver, Alex Worrall, and Carmen Tan all had a part in the Lady Pioneers dominating the floor in all aspects of the game against Augusta. Augusta struggled to keep up with the Lady Pioneers and ended up unable to put an offense together with the Lady Pioneers aggressive play. The Lady Pioneers won the game 58-16 and both games this weekend, going 2-0.

Against Augusta, Eva Yeadon had 24 points, Jai Baumann had 14 points, and Keira Galbavy had six. As a team, they had 16 steals.

Travis said, “We host our first home game, another 10 C in Cascade this Friday. They have made it to Divisionals for several years and should contend to make it again. We will host Turner, our first conference game of the year, on Saturday. We sure would appreciate as many fans as possible in our gym, as the atmosphere should be electric.”