Hot-shooting Yellowjackets sting Rams in opener

A red hot Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson shooting night and a slow start spelled doom for Glenwood in its girls basketball opener last Tuesday.

The Yellowjackets knocked down 10-of-26 three-pointers and shot 18-of-25 at the free throw line in a 64-48 victory in Glenwood.

For first-year Glenwood head coach Brian Rasmussen, the game felt and looked a lot like a season-opener for a team that’s still learning.

“We’re trying to put in a lot of new stuff and we don’t have it all in yet; new schemes, everything is new,” Rasmussen said after the game. “We don’t have the luxury of having just tweaks to make the previous year. It’s a new system and a lot of new stuff for these girls and it showed. Not to mention we came across a team that flat out put the ball in the hole. They were capitalizing. We met a team that was on fire.”

Glenwood was decidedly not on fire to open the game.

After the Yellowjackets grabbed three offensive rebounds and a quick 4-0 in their first two possessions, Rasmussen called a time out less than a minute into the game to re-focus his team. Three minutes and five turnovers and 1-of-8 shooting, Rasmussen pulled all five starters off the court for reserves.

“One of the things we talked about before the game probably more than anything, and we felt was going to be the key in this game, was how we rebounded and it wasn’t even 30 seconds into the game and we’d given up second and third chances,” Rasmussen said. “They needed to realize we needed to rebound or it was going to be a long night if we give them second chance opportunities.”

The Rams, after trailing 12-3 the first five minutes, trailed just 14-11 after a quarter despite shooting 3-of-13 from the field and turning the ball over eight times.

The margin was 24-22 in favor of T.J. at the half.

Danielle Hardcastle’s three-pointer on the opening possession of the second half gave Glenwood its first lead at 25-24. The teams would continue to trade buckets and the lead throughout the frame until the Yellowjackets strung together a 6-0 run over the final minute to take a 46-41 lead into the fourth quarter.

Thomas Jefferson would stay hot to open the final frame, getting out to a 53-43 lead – its biggest lead to that point – thanks to a 7-2 run.

Over the final five minutes, the Rams hit just 2-of-13 shots and were out-scored 11-5. Thomas Jefferson hit 11-of-12 free-throws down the stretch to ice the win.

Glenwood never seemed to get in synch on offense as Rasmussen juggled a lineup that returned five starters but was integrating several underclassmen into the rotation that were seeing their first varsity action.

For the game, the Rams shot 36.9 percent from the field (17-of-45) and were out-rebounded 38-26.

Rasmussen said he saw a lot his team can and will improve on after game one.

“We’re tying to run a motion offense against a man-to-man defense and its taken a while for the girls to get comfortable with it,” Rasmussen said. “It was pretty stagnant tonight, there wasn’t a lot of movement and that showed when they (TJ) went to man. They went back and forth from zone in an odd and an even front and we had a little trouble recognizing it and shifting from one zone offense to another. There was a lot of miscommunication out there but that’s going to come with time.”

Scarborough led Glenwood with 16 points and six rebounds. Madison Camden came off the bench to hit 3-of-9 three-pointers and score 11 points.

Allison Schubert led four Yellowjackets in double-figures with 22 points.