The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Wins against Box Elder 59-53, Cascade 55-43, and Turner 58-43,

Travis Baumann said, “Against Box Elder we gave up five 3’s in the first quarter and then battled back with our defense, rebounding and our 4th quarter scoring to capture a 6 point win. Three players were in double digits for scoring and two more with 9. (Yeadon 14, Galbavy 14, and Worrall 10)”

The Lady Pioneers had to reschedule this game against the Lady Bears due to weather and electricity issues. The Lady Pioneers faced a tough Lady Bears team, but their hard work and don’t quit attitude helped them come from behind the first 3 quarters, and pull ahead to win the game by 6 points with a final score 59-53.

The Lady Bears started off a shooting streak and hit five three pointers in the first quarter. They also played a diamond and one defense to try and stop the Lady Pioneers leading scorer, Eva Yeadon. Jai Baumann had a big game and stepped up starting from the get go. Lainey Terry had a nice steal to start the game. Keira Galbavy, Jenny Sant, and Jai all had steals as well. Keira had some big blocks, and Lainey hit a big 3 pointer. Jai had some great passes to Keira for some big buckets, but the Lady Pioneers struggled to get rebounds on the offensive end for some second chance opportunities, and they went into the 2nd quarter down 19-25.

The Lady Pioneers outscored the Lady Bears the 2nd quarter 13-7, and had some big buckets with some hard takes to the basket by Jai and Eva, some big post moves from Keira and Alex Worrall, and Jenny contributed with more steals and some great passes. The Lady Pioneers had a nice bucket by Alex at the buzzer to tie the game going into halftime.

Both teams came out in a press and both teams had a quick turnover to start the half. Eva had a block, and Jai took a charge, but Box Elder had some great takes including an AND1. Jenny had a nice bucket, but the Lady Bears pulled ahead by 7 points with the score being 34-41. The Lady Pioneers didn't quit and still worked hard to fight to come back, and with a Keira block, Jenny steal, Alex steal, Jenny jump shot, and a pass from Jai to Keira for another 2 points, put the Lady Pioneers in the front for the first time in the game going into the last stanza with a score of 42-41.

The 4th quarter was pretty intense with back to back play from both teams but the Lady Pioneers took a 7 point lead at one point, off of a Keira steal and board and bucket, as well as a steal from Jenny and a nice jump shot and floater from her. Alex also had a nice steal as well as a board and bucket. Jai also had two steals, and Eva had a steal as well as a take to the basket for an AND1. Due to the Lady Pioneers tenacious defense and poor shooting from the Lady Bears, they fell just short of the Lady Pioneers with a final score of 59-53

“Against Cascade, the number #1 team out of the 10C, we led most of the game, Cascade plays a lot like us, they are scrappy and refuse to quit. We struggled rebounding against them, but our strength inside was to much for them. Again we had 3 girls in doble digits (Yeadon 21, Galbavy 12 and Worrall 10) and Baumann chipped in with 7 assists”, wrote Travis Baumann head coach of the Lady Pioneers. Lady Pioneers won 55-43.

Eva Yeadon had a nice jumper to start the game, but then Cascade jumped out in the lead 6-2. Then Jenny Sant had a nice give and go to Keira Galbavy, followed by a three pointer from jai Baumann, put the Lady Pioneers in front 7-6. Jai also had a couple steals, Alex Worrall had a nice board and bucket with a free-throw, and an assist from Jenny to Alex for another bucket, putting the Lady Pioneers up 15-9 going into the 2nd quarter.

Eva had a big quarter to help push the Lady Pioneers out in front by 9 by getting a big rebound and going coast to coast for a layup and getting an AND1. She also got a steal and had another fast break layup, as well as another big rebound. The Lady Badgers crashed the boards strong on the offensive end, and had second chance opportunities, but the Lady Pioneers went into halftime up 28-19.

The second half started off with both teams scoring buckets, followed by a three pointer by Lainey Terry, a steal by Jai and pass to Eva for a fast break layup. The Lady Badgers tried to stay within distance of the Lady Pioneers by knocking down a three pointer themselves and a couple jumpers, they pulled within 6 points, but after some big buckets from Keira, and Alex, the Lady Pioneers pulled ahead and won by 12 points with a score of 55-43.

The Lady Pioneers then turned around and played the Lady Tornadoes in the next game, which ended very similarly with a final score of 58-43. “Against Turner we started out fast in the first quarter and then Turner jumped on us in the second quarter. In the second half our defense forced a lot of turnovers and gave us some easy layups. Again we had 3 girls in doble digits, Yeadon 23, Sant 11, and Baumann 11. Yeadon had 10 rebounds and Baumann had 10 steals and six assists.

The game was a slower paced game due to fouls being called. There were 9 fouls called in the first quarter, 6 in the 2nd quarter, another 9 fouls in the 3rd quarter, and in the last quarter, another 5 fouls were called.

The Lady Pioneers jumped out in front by 9 points in the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter, the Lady Tornados came within 2 points battling back, with some big boards sand miscues from the Lady Pioneers with some turnovers, and only went into halftime down 2 points

The 2nd half started with some battling back and forth but some great plays by both teams. After some hard fought moments with some up and down play, the Lady Pioneers went up by 6 points going into the last stanza.

The Last quarter was all Lady Pioneers dominating all aspects, and going up by quite a bit while the Lady Tornados struggled to hold onto the ball. The Lady Pioneers won by 15 with a score of 58-43.

“All in all it was a very good three games stretch on the road to get to 11-1 on the season. This next week we have two very tough games, on Thursday we are at home against CJI (their only loss on the season was to us in Chester) and then on Saturday we are away against DGSG. They have handed us our only loss of the season. Should make for some exciting basketball this weekend. Hope you all can come and watch” …Coach Travis Baumann.