ScrEagles start strong, go cold from field
REARDAN-A very young Screaming Eagles girls basketball team started strong, but struggled to find consistent shot making in a 52-37 defeat to the 1A Deer Park Stags in the season opener Thursday, Nov. 30.
Reardan played lockdown defense in the first quarter and found just enough offense between turnovers forced by the Stags' 2-3 zone press to take an 8-7 lead after eight minutes behind four points and four rebounds from Tenice Waters.
Both teams had better shot making in the second quarter, and Deer Park outscored Reardan 16-13 in the period to take a 23-20 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, Deer Park's offense ignited and Reardan's didn't. The Stags outscored the Screaming Eagles 15-4 to extend their lead to 38-24 after three quarters.
It was a deficit Reardan couldn't find the offense to overcome despite putting up 13 points in the fourth quarter.
"I feel that we did about as well as possible with a young, inexperienced team," Reardan head coach Bob Swannack said. "The kids played hard and had a bit of a chip on their shoulders after three straight weeks of practice. We showed a lot of positive signs with a very youthful team of mostly underclassmen."
Reardan's varsity roster includes five freshmen, an eighth-grader, one sophomore, one junior and one senior. Swannack started two freshmen in Waters and Rylynn Green, an eighth-grader and his two upperclassmen, junior McKenzie Bjornberg and senior Kassidy Koch, against Deer Park.
First off the bench were three more freshmen in Raegan Soliday, Lillie Whitman and Olivia Wicks.
The aforementioned eighth-grader Chasyn Waters made her high school debut and led Reardan with 12 points and nine rebounds. Her older sister, Tenice Waters, scored 10 points and secured seven boards while Bjornberg added six points and eight rebounds.
Reardan will look to find the winning column with a back-to-back this weekend. The Screaming Eagles are at Kettle Falls Friday, Dec. 8 before hosting St. George's Saturday, Dec. 9.
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