Wolverines rebound to earn first victory of the season

East Mills out-scored Woodbine 22-14 to rally for a 39-36 victory over Woodbine in a non-conference girls basketball tilt last Tuesday in Malvern.

Rachel Schafer and Alex Knop each scored 11 points to lead East Mills. Knop added 12 rebounds. Gracee Meyer scored nine points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds. In all, the Wolverines grabbed 55 rebounds as a team.

“We played very well defensively and made it difficult for them to get good looks at the hoop,” said East Mills coach Blair Holman. “We were exceptional on the glass and held a sizable rebounding advantage and offensively we struggled to make shots, but played well enough in other areas to get the win.

“The girls competed extremely hard for four quarters and getting the first win on the year was big for us.

Diagonal 50,
East Mills 29

East Mills dug itself a first quarter hole it could never quite get out of.

The Wolverines missed nine of their first 12 shots, turned the ball over seven times and trailed 13-6 after a rough opening quarter they never recovered from in a 50-29 loss to Diagonal in the season-opener for both teams last Monday in Malvern.

“We kind of thought this could happen, we haven’t had a lot of time to get ready,” said East Mills coach Blair Holman, whose team got a late start to practice this season after the Wolverine volleyball team’s run to the state tournament. “We didn’t really know what to expect from them offensively or defensively so we tried to make adjustments throughout. When you start out getting in a hole like that, it’s hard to dig out.”

The Maroonettes, who went 16-8 a year ago, used its full court press to speed up the Wolverines and keep them consistently out of synch offensively most of the night. For the night, the Wolverines shot just 24.5 percent from the field (13-of-53), including 1-of-15 from behind the arc.

After its first quarter struggles, the Maroonettes jumped on the Wolverines in the second frame, extended their lead  to 19-9 lead early on and then went on to take a commanding 27-11 spread thanks to an 8-2 run.

East Mills had more first half fouls (10) than field goals (six) in trailing 27-14 at the half.

In the second quarter, the Wolverines twice cut the lead to 10 points but could get no closer down the stretch as the Maroonettes slowly pulled away. Emily Newton’s three-pointer put the lead to 47-27 with 1:49 to go.

“I thought we were able to cut into the lead a little bit in the third quarter and the fourth but we kind of ran out of gas,” Holman said. “Overall I was pleased with what I saw. I saw a lot we need to work on but with rough start like that we’ll have to learn from it.”

Alex Knop led the way for East Mills with 12 points and eight rebounds. Madison Williams chipped in six points and grabbed five boards.

Newton paced Diagonal with 18 points and Katie Sobotka added 10 points.