Cyclone girls basketball team starts 2-0

HCHS holds off St. Albert for second ‘W’ in two nights

 HARLAN (Dec. 3) -- During a frustrating 5-17 campaign last winter, the Harlan Community girls basketball team didn’t win its first two games until the 5th and 8th of January. Flash forward 11 months and the Cyclones - armed with seven returning letter winners - reached the two-win mark in just over 24 hours.
 One night after beating a rebuilding Treynor team 46-36, HCHS overcame a sluggish start and held off a late rally to top St. Albert 46-42. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Cyclone girls are 2-0 for the first time since the 2014-15 squad went 26-0 and won the program’s second consecutive state title.
 “You definitely take 2-0,” said HCHS head coach Zach Klaassen. “Five wins last year, you go into Christmas without any wins... it’s tough. It’s real tough, so 2-0 we’re not going to complain.”
 Tuesday marked the type of game that last year’s Cyclones generally did not win. Harlan finished the first half on a 14-3 run to take a 23-19 lead and extended the margin to 29-22 in the third quarter. The Saintes (1-1) continued to hang around, however, and tied the score at 40 on Isabel Pershing’s fourth 3-pointer of the second half (and fifth of the night) with 2:02 to play.
 HCHS persevered down the stretch as Brecken Van Baale hit three out of four free throws on a pair of 1-and-1’s, then came up with a big steal near the top of the key and hit two more foul shots to make it 45-40 with :19.7 remaining.
 St. Albert had one more chance to tie the score after Allie Petry was fouled on a putback and missed the ‘and one’ free throw, but Jordyn Blaha’s long three was off the mark and Macie Leinen was fouled on the loose ball rebound with virtually no time left.
 “We’ve got to learn how to win,” Klaassen noted, “and grinding out two close games here is good for us... These kids have been beat up for two years in a row... Winning just doesn’t come. You’ve got to have it mentally and you’ve just got to know how to close out games. The good thing is we’ve had a couple close games so far that we have closed out and we’ve made the right plays when we needed to, so that’s good to see.”
 For the second straight game, juniors Van Baale and Leinen tied for the team lead in scoring. Van Baale hit 7-of-8 free throws and finished with 14 points and three steals. Leinen scored a traditional three-point play and also hit a trey in the fourth quarter, totaling 14 points, eight boards, four steals and two blocked shots.
 Raegen Wicks added seven points and four rebounds off the bench, sparking the team with two first-quarter baskets after the Cyclones fell behind 7-0 in the opening four minutes and 14-6 later in the period.

 
 

 

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