Cyclones stamp ticket to next round

The HCHS girls varsity basketball team stamped their ticket to the next round of the playoffs after a massive win Saturday night at home against the Red Oak Tigers, 61-14.

“He [Klaassen] told us at practice this is not going to be like the normal competition that we see and we just need to stay up at our level and we’ll be successful,” said Junior Erica Rust.

Rust got the Cyclones going by dropping their first bucket of the night, which turned into a 13-0 Cyclone run before Tigers head coach Coleman Mullenix called a timeout. With just under two minutes to go, Freshman Tiger Jocelyn O’Neal got her team on the board, but the Cyclones took a dominating 18-2 lead into the second quarter.

The Tigers dropped the first bucket of the second quarter, but soon after, the Cyclones took control when Junior Hannah Sonderman made a 3-point shot and Senior Ella Plagman was on the back end of a 10-0 Cyclone run, forcing another timeout from Mullenix.

All members of the Cyclones roster were contributing, giving them a 41-4 lead at the half.

“I thought defensively we were pretty solid,” Klaassen said. “Communication was pretty good tonight. I thought our man defense was pretty good. We haven’t played much of that this year. Our rebounding was really good tonight.”

Junior Tiger Kaysie Kells opened the third quarter with a 3-point shot, followed by a bucket from teammate Senior Lainey DeVries to give the Tigers a 5-0 run. That didn’t affect the Cyclones as they took a 11-4 run to finish out the quarter.

The Cyclones opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run. Due to such a large lead, Klaassen sat some of the varsity girls down for a few minutes and allowed the JV kids a chance to play.

“Those girls push our starters,” Klaassen said. “They’ve earned that right to be out there and it’s good to see them get a couple of buckets here and there, get some rebounds and have some fun. It’s good to reward them when you can and tonight we had that opportunity.”

The Cyclones will face a familiar for Wednesday night when they see the Atlantic Trojans. Harlan lost 53-51 on Feb. 7.

The Trojans are led by Sophomore Paytn Harter with 325 points and 211 rebounds and Senior Jada Jensen with 105 assists. The Trojans are coming off a 54-24 victory in the first round of the playoffs over the Clarinda Cardinals.

“This is the game that counts against them, so we just have to get that win and keep moving to be playing in March,” Rust said.