Paton-Churdan girls basketball team wins at home

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com

The Paton-Churdan girls basketball team welcomed newcomer West Harrison to Churdan by handing them a 63-35 defeat on Dec. 20. As their school name would indicate, they are from the western part of Harrison County, and if I am reading my Iowa map correctly, they are less than 20 miles from the Missouri River that forms the border between Iowa and Nebraska. The long bus ride wasn’t the only reason that the Hawks lost badly. The opponents came into the game winless, and the Rockets needed to get back in the groove after a disappointing road loss to Coon Rapids/Bayard.

The vistors came out strong and were ahead 12-8 at the end of the first period. The Rockets woke up in the second period and out scored the Hawkeyes 28-8 to take a commanding 36-20 half time lead. West Harrison could never recover as the Rockets played good defense and held their opponent to single digit scoring in each of the remaining quarters.

Carleigh Paup led the offense going 12-27 from the field including making four of seven from outside the three point arc. Paup also converted on all four of her free throws for a total of 32 points. Crystal Sabus and Casey Lane also scored in double figures with 14 and 10 points respectively. Sydney Koch led Paton-Churdan in rebounding with nine, and Emma Tilley, Bayllie Flinn, and Sabus  nabbed five rebounds apiece. Tilley and Paup were scrappy on defense combining for 16 steals between them. Although Tilley and Koch did not score a lot versus the Hawks, they helped others score by getting 13 assists between them.

“I thought our press looked good, said coach Chris Petersen. We also were trying a new offense, and it was good to have a lead, so we could practice it some tonight. We need to do a better job of getting the ball to our high post players. It is great to win at home, but when we get back after break, we will have to start winning some of our road games also.”

P-C   8   36   54   63
WH  12  20   29   35
Paton-Churdan (63) Scoring- Carleigh Paup 12 4-4 32, Crystal Sabus 7 0-0 14, Kasey Lane 5 0-0 10. Sydney Koch 2 0-0 5, Reilly Niles 1 0-0 2. Rebounds- Koch 9, Sabus 5, Emma Tilley 5, Bayllie Flinn 5, Lane 4, Niles 4, Paup 3. Assists- Koch 7, Tilley 6. Steals- Tilley 9, Paup 7. 3-point goals- Paup 4, Koch 1.
West Harrison (35)  Scoring- Kylee Glennie 5 2-4 12, Michaela Foster 3 0-2 7, Morgan Shearer 3 1-2 7, Alyssa Hatcher 2 2-4 6. Rebounds- Glennie 7, Shearer 7, Foster 6, Hatcher 5. 3-point goals- Glennie 2, Foster 1.