Lady Jays Basketball
Wayne Overpowers Pierce in a Close Battle
By Brayden Suckstorf
The Bluejays lost in a close match on the road against the Wayne Blue Devils on January 10 in a Mid-State girls basketball matchup.
”It was disappointing that we lost, we didn't execute enough on the offensive and defensive end to get the win. The girls will learn and grow from this loss and be better for it,” head coach Darin Suckstorf said.
The Bluejays did not start the game off like they wanted to with the first quarter being 15-11 in favor of the Blue Devils.
Pierce turned things around in the second quarter only letting Wayne score three points in the second quarter, going into the half with the lead, 23-18.
Both teams came out slow after the half with each team scoring single digits making the score a close 29-27 with the Bluejays in the lead.
In the final quarter, the Bluejays did not execute to their full potential, letting the Blue Devils score 11 points to Pierce’s six, making the final score a close 37-35.
With the tough loss, the Bluejay’s record falls to 8-3.
Leading the team in points was Skylar Scholting who had 16. Abigail Cone followed Scholting with four points. Hadley Wragge, Mya Froehlich, Grace Suckstorf, Haley Scholting, and Nora Herian all contributed three points each to their 35.
“Our biggest focus for the upcoming games is defense and shooting. We haven't had the best shooting games lately, so we need to make sure we are focusing on that in practice,” S. Scholting stated. “Our defense is always something that we are looking to improve on too.”
The Bluejays host Humphrey St. Francis on Thursday, January 16.
From the Edge of Defeat to the Sweet Taste of Victory
By Cameron Kuehler
Pierce girls basketball started down but persevered through and came out on top in their game against the Aquinas Catholic Monarchs on January 9. With their fourth straight home victory, the girls are now 8-2.
The first half was rough. Going neck and neck the whole first quarter, the Bluejays could not hold on and were down 11-10.
Going into halftime Pierce still trailed 17-14, which set the team back a little bit. But at halftime Head coach Darin Suckstorf figured out a game plan to beat the Monarchs.
“I thought the team did a great job of finishing the game in the fourth quarter,” Suckstorf says.
With some halftime adjustments, the Bluejays came out strong leading 25-24, after the third quarter.
Still going strong in the fourth quarter, both teams scored many points, but Pierce kept trucking making the final score 43-35.
Hadley Wragge had an outstanding game, making her the player of the game, chosen by News Channel Nebraska who was televising the game. “Overall I think that we need to work on coming out strong, recently it has taken us a little while to get into the groove of things during the game,” says Wragge.
The girls basketball team is on a good run this year and this year is looking promising for them.
A Game Well Fought
By Brody Knox
The freshman/sophomore girls basketball team put up a fight with Battle Creek on Tuesday, January 7, and unfortunately lost with a score of 43-17.
In the first half, 13 points were scored by Pierce. Kaelyn Halsey scored the first two points for Pierce followed by buckets by Darcy Watts, Natalie Endorf, and Aislyn Moeller. In the second quarter, Moeller took the first free throw for Pierce, missing two shots and bucketing three.
Dribbling into the second half, Moeller brought the final four points for Pierce. During the third quarter Halsey was given the chance to score two points for Pierce but missed both free throws. In the fourth quarter Meredith Krienert missed both free throws, along with Maelee Hamiliton.
“For starters, we can improve on being able to run our plays due to us having trouble with that,” Krienert states.
Lead scorers were Watts and Moeller followed by Halsey and Endorf.
“It was not our best performance. Battle Creek came out really strong right away and we kind of struggled to get our offense going and that kind of hindered us the whole game there,” comments freshman/sophomore girls basketball coach Marika VonSeggern. “We’re gonna get better and be more sure about running our offense and our transition to defense. Battle Creek got a lot of easy ones (points) and easy layups just because we weren’t for sure on transitioning to defense. I think if we work on that, then we’ll have a lot more stops.”
The freshmen/sophomore team will play at Wisner-Pilger on Monday, January 20.
