Lady Beavers race past Lakin

SCHS sophomore Bailey Nickel scores two of her career high 16 points in Friday's win against Lakin.

By Rod Haxton, editor

The Scott Community High School girls found themselves in an unusual situation when they hosted Lakin on Friday. They were the taller team on the floor.

That advantage would seem to be reflected in the offensive performance of post players Janessa Lowenthal and Bailey Nickel who combined for 35 points. The key on Friday, however, wasn’t in Scott City’s domination in the paint, but in their ability to run the floor.

“We came into this game with the intent of taking the ball inside where we felt Janessa and Bailey would have a big game,” says head coach Mark Campos. “But it was our transition offense that produced most of our points.”

The result was a 57-45 non-league win that snapped a four game losing streak for the Lady Beavers (5-8, 3-2).

Surprisingly, it was the two tallest girls on the court who were consistently getting behind the Lakin defense for a number of fastbreak scoring opportunities.

“We’d seen in game film that Lakin wants to pressure you in an attempt to disrupt the flow of the game, which also made them susceptible to getting beat on the back side,” says Campos. “We were able to get girls behind them on a consistent basis. Since they didn’t stop pressing us or have someone playing back as a safety, we kept attacking them with our transition game.”

That contributed to a big night for Lowenthal and Nickel who each scored career highs with 19 and 16 points, respectively. Lowenthal was 7-of-8 from the field and pulled down six rebounds while Nickel had a double-double with 11 rebounds.

Despite the big offensive night from both girls, the win didn’t come easy for Scott City which held a slim 34-31 lead with 2:26 left in the third period.

Senior guard Audrey Baker, who was 2-of-5 from beyond the three-point arc, drilled the second of her treys to jump start a 9-0 scoring run. Nickel finished off the

scoring spurt with a pair of free throws that put the Lady Beavers on top, 43-31, with 6:33 to play.

“Bailey has continued to improve her post play. I’ve told her that as she gains confidence she’s going to become an offensive force,” says Campos. “If she can put together games like this on a consistent basis it’s going to force other teams to adjust their defense and not concentrate so much on Jan.”

Scott City was able to overcome some sloppy play through the first half that resulted in numerous turnovers - many of them unforced. The Lady Beavers committed more turnovers than Lakin - 23 to 18.

“That comes down to pre-game preparation. The girls can’t just go through the motions, but they need to take what they do seriously,” says the head coach. “I felt that contributed to our ragged play early in the game with handling the ball.”

Scott City’s guard play was led by junior Shanaya Hoeme who had nine points and six assists while Baker added eight points with 10 assists. Scott City finished with a season high of 27 assists.

“Our guards did an excellent job of pushing the ball down the floor and getting the ball to Bailey and Janessa. It was a good team effort,” says Campos.