The Pioneer girls’ basketball team used strong defense and took advantage of offensive struggles by Skyline to score a 47-18 win in an SEC game on Friday.
Both teams played strong defense in the first half as Pioneer took a 16-8 lead into the locker room at the break. The Eagles, who struggled scoring the ball, was 0-11 in the first quarter on field goals and just 3-14 in the second quarter.
“If a few of those missed baskets had gone in during the first half, the game going into halftime would have been much closer and the game may have been much different in the second half,” said Skyline Coach Mike Lovelace.
The Eagles were just 6-41 shooting in the game.
“Pioneer was able to speed things up with defensive pressure and we were not able to find the poise, spacing and passes needed to break the pressure,” Lovelace said.
Hailee Sheffield (12 points) and Tranazji Bullock (11 points) led the Pioneers.
Skyline was led in scoring by Zoie Reichert and Abby Yuan each with 4 points.
It didn’t take the Eagles long to find their scoring groove as they bounced back on Saturday with a 55-32 win over Brandon HS at Belleville High School in the Best of Michigan Holiday Classic.
Skyline made a huge turnaround within 24 hours being able to score the ball and finding the poise, spacing and passes needed to go against the defensive pressure of Brandon. The Eagles also did a great job holding Riley Abney to 11 points from Brandon who recently scored 42 in a game and is now Brandon’s all time leading career scorer for boys and girls.
“Zoie and Mina Reichert did a great job working hard to limit Riley and our other players also did a great job helping out when needed to limit scoring chances,” Lovelace said.
Skyline was led in scoring by Anjali Kakarla with 14 points and she also did a great job managing the game and getting the Eagles into scoring opportunities. Reichert had 10 points to go along with the great defensive effort. Kennedy Wassef had 9 points, Abby Yuan had 8 points, Reva Patchava scored 6 points, Vedha Kakarla 4 points, and Meredith Fischer and Mina Reichert each had 2 points.
