Cyclone girls make it 3-0 with rout of Shenandoah

 HARLAN (Dec. 6) -- The Harlan Community girls basketball team’s early-season revenge tour continued in earnest here Friday night with a 58-28 win over Shenandoah.
 HCHS scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed, building a 27-10 lead at the half and going up by as many as 33 points in the fourth quarter.
 The Cyclones improved to 3-0 overall and 1-0 inside the Hawkeye Ten Conference and have already avenged three losses from last year’s 5-17 campaign. Shenandoah dropped to 0-4 and 0-1.
 “The biggest thing I can see that’s different from a year ago is the effort and the attitude has definitely changed,” said HCHS head coach Zach Klaassen. “We expect them to play hard at all times on the floor and I think they’re grasping that, and the attitude is good.
 “We still have some moments where we hang our heads a little bit, but for the most part when we make mistakes we kind of get over it and move on."
 In last year’s 73-37 win over Harlan, Shenandoah’s Logan Hughes scored 31 points and Roxy Denton had 21. Hughes graduated in May and Denton did not play on Friday. The Fillies made just 10-of-39 field goals as a team and HCHS came up with 22 steals to feed the offense.
 The Cyclones missed nine of their first 11 free throws before finishing 10-of-23 at the line. They also knocked down six three-pointers - three by Jocelyn Cheek and two more by Caitlyn Leinen.
 Cheek and Leinen scored 13 and 12 points, respectively, and Claire Schmitz was effective inside with 13. Brecken Van Baale added seven points, followed by Macie Leinen with six, Ashley Hall five and Kaia Bieker two. Schmitz and Macie Leinen both grabbed six rebounds for the Cyclones and Hall had five boards, seven assists and three steals.