Lady Eagles back home to face off with Southern Idaho
From the frying pan into the fire. After six tough road games the Eagles come home to face the conference leading CSI Golden Eagles in the BDAC this Friday and Saturday nights.
On Dec. 8 Colorado Northwestern Community College women’s basketball team came to town and found themselves thrown in front of a buzz saw. The Eagle defense was a swarming, suffocating and relentless attack that didn’t give the lady Spartans a chance in this game.
This archived article was written by: Scott Frederick
From the frying pan into the fire. After six tough road games the Eagles come home to face the conference leading CSI Golden Eagles in the BDAC this Friday and Saturday nights.
On Dec. 8 Colorado Northwestern Community College women’s basketball team came to town and found themselves thrown in front of a buzz saw. The Eagle defense was a swarming, suffocating and relentless attack that didn’t give the lady Spartans a chance in this game.
The lady Eagles held them to 19 points in the first half and 23 in the second. Staci Little was a presence in the middle and picked up five blocked shots. On offense, the Eagles were on fire with every member of the team getting in on the scoring and four of them getting into double digits. Elisha Harris led all scorers with 21. Also scoring in double digits for the Eagles was Haley Rogers with 13, Jenny Fiso and Kendra Dalebout each got 11. The Eagles easily won this one 93-42.
The next evening’s game wasn’t much different. The Eagles won easily 95-65. Again on defense it was Little who picked up seven blocks. And again on offense Harris led all scorers with 22. Close behind was Halee Rasmussen with 21, Fiso added 12 and Bresha Smith 10.
The Eagles continued their winning ways on Dec. 30 when the Idaho All Stars came to town. Even with leading scorer Harris out of the game due to illness, this game was never close. With tough defense and every member of team getting points, the Eagles won easily 81-48. Scoring in double digits in this game were Rasmussen with 14, Fiso 12 and Ashley Taylor 10.
In their third conference game of the season, CEU traveled to Salt Lake Community College to take on the Bruins, Jan 5. CEU lost in a heartbreaker 74-77.
Every member of the Bruins team scored with Katie King leading all scorers with 22. Keshia Catten also got into double-digit territory with 12.
For CEU, Harris and Little each added 16 while Little made four blocks. SLCC had the advantage on the free-throw line with the team shooting 83 percent compared with CEU’s 62 percent. CEU had more field goals, and each team had four three-pointers, but the Bruins scored 25 points out of 30 attempts from the line while CEU picked up eight out of 13.
Coach Dave Paur is not one to complain about circumstances beyond his control, but when a colleague called him and expressed reservations about the officiating, Paur agreed.
On the next evening in the second half of their double-header the Bruins again prevailed 62-56 with 21 of those points coming from the free-throw line, going 21 for 26 and shooting 80 percent, compared with the Eagles 7 out of ten for 70 percent from the line.
Harris led all scorers with 18. Also scoring in double digits for CEU was Mallory Holm with 10.
The Bruins also had two ladies getting double digits. King had 12 and Shordy Mulford had 10.
Jan. 12, the Eagle were on the road again to take on the Snow College Badgers. On the first play of the game, Fiso broke her elbow and was out for the game, and probably won’t suit up for six weeks. The lady Badgers came out of the gate fast and out scored the Eagles 42-25 in the first half. The Eagles regrouped after halftime and held the Badgers to 25 points in the second half while scoring 26 points. But the Badgers had a big cushion and coasted to a 67-51 victory.
Offensively for the Badgers, every member of the team got on the scoreboard with four of them getting into double digits. Coming off the bench, Cori Neilson had 13 points, Lindsie Wilson 12, Josie Pugsley 11, and ShaNae Horner 10. Neilson came close to getting a double by grabbing seven rebounds.
For CEU, Harris led all scorers with 14. Also getting double digit points was Rogers with 12.
According to Paur, the injury to starting guard Fiso knocked the Eagles out of their rhythm, and will take a while to get it back.
The next night, Jan 13, the Eagles again faced the Badgers in Ephraim. On this night the Eagles came out fast and out scored the Badgers 30-25 in the first half. But it was Snow coming up with the halftime adjustments and out scoring CEU 51-37 in the second half, handing the Eagles their fourth loss in a row with a final score of 76-67.
The Eagle defense didn’t have an answer for Wilson who poured in 25 points, went seven of nine from the line, grabbed nine rebounds, shot two of four from behind the arc and had two blocks. Kim Gamblin also had a big night for the Badgers, shooting eight of 14 from the floor, one of two from the line for a total of 17 points. She also retrieved nine rebounds and got three blocks.
Snow had an answer for CEU’s top scorer, Harris, limiting her to three field goals, and no free throws for a total of six points.
Rogers led CEU’s scoring with 13 points, six of them coming from field goals and seven from the free throw line where she went seven of eight. In fact CEU’s free throw shooting was awesome with the team shooting 84 percent. Holm was perfect from the line going six for six, Rasmussen was also perfect going two for two. Smith and Erin Richardson went seven of eight. Smith and Richardson each got into double digits with Smith getting 11 points and Richardson adding 10.
Last weekend the Eagles were in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, to face the North Idaho College Lady Cardinals. With Fiso out, Paur was already in a tough spot as he faced the second best team in the conference, especially when guard Richardson came out of the game with a sprained ankle. With two guards unable to play, NIC overpowered the Eagles 78-59.
CEU continues to impress from the free-throw line where as a team they shot over 79 percent compared with NIC’s 63 percent. However NIC managed to get to the line 36 times, while CEU made only 24 trips to the line.
King was perfect from the line going five for five. Also perfect were Rasmussen and Maquette Potts who both went two for two.
On defense Little put in a nice effort with three blocked shots, and Richarson had three steals before leaving the game with the injured ankle.
Harris was the leading scorer and rebounder for the Eagles with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Several other players nearly made it into double digits. Rasmussen and Rogers each got nine and King added seven. The team had a balanced-scoring effort with nearly everyone scoring.
For NIC, Simone Jordan led all scorers with 19. Also getting into double digits were Niki Scott with 14 and Kay Hill 13.
On the next night, the Eagles were again short handed with both Fiso and Richardson out with injuries. And again the result was the same with the Cardinals winning 73-52.
Little was all over the floor and picked up a double with 14 rebounds and 12 points. She also had three assists, three blocks and a steal. Harris and Rogers had 12 points each.
For NIC, Jordan had 17 points to lead all scorers with Scott and Hill each adding 11.
This Friday and Saturday, the Eagles take on conference-leading College of Southern Idaho in the BDAC at 5:30 p.m.
