With the help of a quick start, the Twin Cedars Sabers girls’ basketball team defeated the Pleasantville Trojans in the first girls basketball game of the season for both squads last night, 62 – 27. The Lady Sabers had a 26 – 6 lead after just one quarter of play, thanks in part to heavy backcourt pressure that the young Pleasantville Trojans could not break. Twin Cedars also took advantage of easy shots under the basket; only missing four lay-ups on 23 attempts. Senior Lady Saber, Alee Hugen, reached a big milestone in her high school career, scoring her 1,000th point in the opening night contest. Twin Cedars’ head coach, Justin Nolte, said it’s nice to get game one out of the way and was overall happy with how all of his girls performed.
“It was good for our kids to get the first game out of the way, get the cobwebs out of the way,” Nolte said. “I thought overall that we played pretty well, especially the first quarter, first half. Our bench kids did a great job. They came in, we didn’t drop off, they played extremely well and played really hard.”
For the Pleasantville side, first-year coach, Aaron Fichter, now has one game under his belt, and he said that the biggest thing for his young team was just getting them game experience. One girl that stepped up for Fichter’s Trojans, was Kennedy Core, who heated up in the third quarter, making three shots from beyond the arc to keep the game from being blown away.
“Kennedy [Core], I always know the shooting ability is there,” Fichter said. “I thought she was aggressive to the basket. The big thing this year, she wanted to be a leader, especially as a sophomore, that’s a big thing that she wants to do. I really felt like she kept the girls motivated and positive throughout the game, so I felt good about that.”
Again, that was Trojans head coach, Aaron Fichter. Twin Cedars can rest until after Thanksgiving, as their next game is November 27 on the road at Wayne, while the Trojans will play their second game of the season this Tuesday against Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont.