Tonasket sophomore Amber Kilpatrick tries to get around Brewster junior Corina Gebbers during the Tigers’ home loss to Brewster on Friday, Dec. 18. Photo by Emily Hanson
TONASKET – Despite losing their first two league games, the Tonasket girls’ basketball team is showing improvement, their head coach says.
On Tuesday, Dec. 15, the Tigers lost at home to Chelan 57-21. Junior Jayden Hawkins led in scoring with 11 points while senior April Webber had four and juniors Jerian Ashley and Shelby Olma each had three.
“Our turnovers were at 27, which is lower than what we had in the past and that’s a definite improvement,” Stephanie Schertenleib, head coach, said. “The team is starting to get frustrated but the good part is we’re starting to break presses better, turnovers are lower and rebounds have gotten better.”
Ashley said the first quarter against Chelan was the best the team had played so far this season.
“Our offensive rebounds got us into the game and we’re improving on the little things,” Ashley said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to improve faster and have a good ending half of the season.”
On Friday, Dec. 18, the Tigers lost at home to Brewster 56-27. Olma led the team in scoring 11 points while Ashley and junior Michelle Carlson had four points each.
“We’re working on free throws because the percentage was very poor against Brewster,” Schertenleib said.
Olma said she thought the team started off well against the Bears but they need to work on keeping their intensity higher because sometimes their morale gets a little low.
“I do think we are progressing,” Olma added. “Our turnovers have gotten a lot lower so that shows we are improving and are not going backward.”
Schertenleib agreed, stating that the 21 turnovers the Tigers had against the Bears was the lowest the team has had all season. She said the team is looking forward to the Brewster Christmas Tournament on Tuesday, Dec. 29 and Wednesday, Dec. 30.
“It’ll be nice to play another nonleague team who doesn’t know what you’re running,” Schertenleib said. “Cascade-Christian has a good program so it should be a tough, but good game.”
