Cyclone girls propelled by 35-12 start at Atlantic, now 6-1 in H-10

 ATLANTIC (Jan. 21) -- When the Harlan Community girls basketball team goes on a run this season, the opposing team knows they’ve been hit.
 The Cyclones’ latest big surge came in the opening 12 minutes at Atlantic Thursday night in the form of a 35-12 start.
 The Trojans got back in the game by scoring the next 11 points, but HCHS fought off every challenge the rest of the way to pick up a 73-60 Hawkeye Ten victory, improving to 10-3 overall and 6-1 in conference play. Atlantic dropped to 6-8 overall and 3-4 in the H-10.
 The 11th-ranked (Class 4A) Cyclones were playing for the first time in nine days but showed no signs of rust in the first quarter and a half. Head coach Zach Klaassen noted that the girls practiced well during their break from competition.
 “The way we came out you would think we played just a couple days ago, then the last half of the game it looked like it’s been nine days,” Klaassen joked.
 “Our JV - I tip my cap to them. They gave us a heck of a run all week. With that down time, we had a few extra practices in there. This time of year I don’t know if you necessarily want to have that many practices, but it is what it is. You’ve just got to deal with it, and I think our JV did a great job of getting us prepared for tonight.”
 Sparked by a Jocelyn Cheek three-pointer to start each of the first two quarters, HCHS scored the first 11 points of the night, led 22-10 after one and extended the margin to 35-12 on Claire Schmitz’s conventional three-point play with 4:06 left in the half.
 Schmitz dominated in the paint early, scoring 14 of her game-high 19 points in the first half and also tallying seven rebounds, four steals, three assists and two blocks.
 Brecken Van Baale made 4-of-6 three-pointers and scored 13 of her 18 points in the second half for HCHS. Cheek finished with 15 points, Ashley Hall hit 3-of-5 treys in scoring 13 (she also had seven assists and four steals) and Macie Leinen added six points and nine boards.
 As a team, the Cyclones knocked down 10-of-21 threes, made the extra pass in assisting on 20 of 24 made field goals and made 15-of-20 free throws. They handled Atlantic’s 1-2-2 press outside of a few poor stretches and also rebounded well.
 “It was good to see another balanced attack,” Klaassen said. “We had four girls in double figures again (and) that’s kind of what we’re looking for. We want everybody to be a threat out there offensively.
 “I thought we played really well the first five-six minutes for sure. We kind of jumped on them early, got a couple nice transition buckets, got a couple threes to go. We just kind of moved the ball really well, got through that 1-2-2 [press] pretty easy and rebounded pretty well.”
 HCHS also held Atlantic 1,000-point scorer Haley Rasmussen to 13 points (she averages 20.2), including zero during the critical first 12 minutes. Van Baale and Raegen Wicks took turns shadowing Rasmussen when the Cyclones played a box-and-one or diamond-and-one defense on the Trojan star.
 Rasmussen scored most of her points on fast breaks or off turnovers.
 “I think she only had one or two buckets in the half court,” Klaassen noted. “The rest were just hustle plays and getting steals and run outs and getting layups off of them. She did hit one deep three.”
 Sophomore Jada Jensen had a nice game for Atlantic with 15 points, scoring from multiple spots on the floor. Maycie Waters hit three treys and scored 11 points while Lauren Nicholas (two treys) and Tessa Grooms both added six.
 Trailing 38-25 at the half, the Trojans pulled within 10 points three times in the second half but the Cyclones answered each time with a Cheek three-point play and three-pointers by Van Baale and Macie Leinen. HCHS widened its lead to 20 in the fourth quarter.
 Coach Klaassen was very pleased with his team’s overall performance outside of a sloppy stretch late in the first half and 14 total turnovers.
 “I think we had three straight turnovers - just lazy passes and telegraphing everything right to the middle, and they got a couple run-out buckets off of that. They went on an (11-0) run,” he said. “It looked like we’re ready to put them away... and then all of a sudden we let them right back into it.”
 Klaassen added: “This time of year - we’re getting close to tournament time - you’ve got to stick to the game plan, you’ve got to know what your job is (on) all possessions and just value the ball and do what you’re supposed to do on the defensive end as well.”