Trotters start season with two wins 57-25 and 41-38
PLAINS – The Lady Trotters got a great start to the season, Thursday, when they claimed a strong victory against the Lady Wampas Cats from Clark Fork, ID.
Plains scored first and took off into an immediate 6-0 lead. The Wampas Cats were able to score, but the home team kept pulling ahead for each basket they got. There were a number of good plays on both sides, such as a good intercept from Shannon Dimmond and from one of the Clark Fork players. By the end of the first halt, the Trotters were ahead 24-10.
The second half opened with the Trotters starting to open their lead further, though Clark Fork’s offense was cutting through their defense more. The Plains girls were able to bring their defense back, though, and they pushed through to increase their advantage; they quickly opened to a 10-point lead by the end of the third quarter.
The lead quickly increased to 20-points in the fourth quarter; while Clark Fork tried to come back, a number of back-to-back scores from Plains meant they were quickly left behind. The Lady Wampas Cats got a score in the final seconds, but they were too far behind and by the time the final buzzer sounded and the score came out at 57-25.
Head Coach Richard Griffin felt the game went well, though he said their team environment needs some improvement. The girls on the bench were fairly quiet throughout the game, rather than cheering and shouting encouragement to their teammates.
“We’ve got to lift each other up,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to play our game, and with that we play better when everyone’s cheering.”
It is still early in the season, though, and there is time for those improvements to be made as the team’s enthusiasm builds.
The team also moved the ball very well on the court; they moved the ball around the other team with ease, avoiding too many steals. Griffin felt this was a good thing since movement would be key to get them playing at a high level come the end of the season. They do need to work on not turning the ball over to the other team and taking shots when they are available, though.
“If we can get all that stuff dialed in by February, this team’s going to be pretty good,” Griffin said.
During practices this week, the team has been working on improving the little aspects of the game and making sure everyone knows the basics as well as their strategies.
This week, the girls will play home games against Troy and Charlo. Griffin felt they were both tough teams and would be good games; they have been playing Troy for several years and watched Charlo at the Frenchtown tournament, though, so they have an idea of what they will be up against.
The Trotters also claimed victory in their away game against Arlee, Saturday. The first half was close with both teams bringing powerful offenses and defenses against each other. The half closed with a score of 13-12 to Plains.
When the second half began, the Trotters leapt ahead and raised their score by 20 points in the third quarter. The Lady Scarletts broke through the Plains defense in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to break through the Trotters’ lead. The game came to an end with a score of 41-38.