BROOKINGS – The Bobcats found themselves in an early hole and couldn’t quite complete the comeback in a 43-32 Eastern South Dakota Conference girls’ basketball loss to Brandon Valley on Thursday night at Bob Jostad Gymnasium.
The Lynx shot 53.9 percent (7-of-13), making four 3-pointers, and limited the Bobcats to three field goals while forcing seven turnovers to grab a 21-7 advantage after a quarter.
The lead peaked at 16 points – 28-12 – late in the second.
“Obviously, there was a slow start. (Brandon Valley) got off to a good start,” said BHS coach Lynn Frederick. “They did a good job of handling our zone; we probably stayed in our zone a little longer than we should have. But we just weren’t as active early in the game, whether we were playing man or zone. Normally our zone has a lot of good man-to-man pressure and we’re very active. (Brandon Valley) was fresh and obviously they had some time to prepare. Like I said before the game, it’s really hard to prepare for that kind of pressure in one day, so to speak.
“But I thought after the first quarter, our kids did a great job defensively and offensively.”
Michaela Jewett’s bucket as time expired pulled Brookings within 28-14 at halftime, and the Bobcats scored the first seven points out of the break.
Peyton Evans made 2-of-2 free throws. Jewett then scored down low on an assist from Baylee Tetzlaff and followed with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 28-21 just 67 seconds into the third.
Danica Kocer’s hoop put the Lynx on top 30-21 at the 5:44 mark.
Jewett again connected from deep with 2:52 to go and Grace Eggebrecht added a free throw to cut the margin to 30-25 with 2:20 remaining in the period.
“We had plenty of opportunities to really make the game interesting,” Frederick added. “We cut it to (five) and had five or six empty possessions where we played good defense and had good looks at the basket, particularly at the end of the third quarter where we had a couple layup opportunities that could have cut it to two and then we had the ball back at the beginning of the fourth quarter.”
Brandon Valley’s Lexi Ellingson hit a foul shot to make it 31-25 heading to the fourth, where the Lynx got a putback from Elsie Zajicek and a trey by Kocer to open up a 36-25 cushion with 6:59 to play.
Brookings never got closer than eight after that.
Kocer, who had seven points in the opening stanza, finished with 12. Trinity Law added 10 points and seven rebounds. Krista Bickley totaled eight points and five boards, while Zajicek chipped in with five markers and six rebounds. Ellingson also scored five points.
Ali Woodward came up with three of the Lynx’s 11 steals, as the visitors forced 23 turnovers and held the Bobcats to 27.8-percent (10-of-36) shooting.
Jewett dropped in a game-high 16 points and corralled eight boards.
Tetzlaff tallied six points, Eggebrecht five and Evans four. Tetzlaff had six boards.
“I like the effort; we had great competitive value tonight,” Frederick added. “I think we got a little bit tired because of the quick turnaround, playing on the road on Tuesday night; and Brandon Valley was fresh, so I think that made a little bit of a difference. They play lots of kids and they play fast – faster than any other team we’re going to play this year.
“So it’s a good learning experience for us. If we can learn from games like that and make it be a confidence builder, I think at the end we’re going to be a pretty good basketball team.
Both teams return to action Saturday as Brookings (3-4, 3-4) plays host to Sioux Falls Washington in a nonconference game at 1:15 p.m. and Brandon Valley (7-2, 6-1) welcomes Aberdeen Central for a 5 p.m. contest.
