Cyclones stamp ticket to next round
It didn’t take long for the HCHS Cyclones girls basketball team to put away the Red Oak Tigers in Saturday’s Class 3A - Region 5 Game opening the game on a 20-8 run, cruising to a 72-25 win.
“It definitely feels great knowing that we’re moving on,” said Senior Grace Albertsen. “We’re still continuing our season and able to play another game. Every game is win or go home, so we’ve got to play our best every game, and just keep winning.”
Albertsen scored the first basket of the game on a free throw, followed by a layup from Senior Aubrey Schwieso. Junior Tiger Ellison Johnson made a 3-pointer, but the Cyclone offense continued to make shots from Sophomore Kenzley Bruck, Senior Molly Swensen, and Albertsen going up 20-8, forcing a timeout from Tiger head coach Tristin Johnson.
Following Johnson’s timeout, the Cyclones scored 12 more points unanswered to close out the quarter leading 32-8. The Cyclones opened the second quarter on an 8-0 run forcing another timeout from Johnson. Junior Tiger Emily Sebeniecher temporarily put a stop to the Cyclone run until Albertsen made back-to-back layups.
“Grace was hitting the offensive boards hard,” said Cyclone Head Coach Zach Klaassen. “She got quite a few put-backs to start the game. We made a decent amount of 3’s it felt like. Molly included, but we also had several just roll in and roll out. Grace was there to pick them up and put them back in, so that was good to see.”
Just before the half concluded, Sophomore Cyclone Victoria William came up with a block that got her teammates on the bench erupting with applause along with the student section.
“In practice, Grace probably doesn’t want me to say it, but she [William] will get Grace once in a while,” Klaassen said. “I know the first time she got her, she surprised Grace a little bit and the junior varsity kids got pretty excited, and even the varsity kids poked Grace a little bit, and gave her grief about it.”
Schwieso opened the third quarter with a shot from 3-point range, which was answered back by a 3-pointer from Sebeniecher. Swensen added another 3-pointer not long after as the Cyclones closed out the quarter with back-to-back shots from Junior Lauren Schmitz.
The fourth quarter began with another 3-point shot from Schwieso as a few of Klaassen’s reserves were able to come in and contribute to the score in Junior Kate Koesters and Sophomore Avery Manz as the Cyclones easily won.
They will return home Wednesday for the second round of regional play against another Hawkeye Ten opponent, the Atlantic Trojans, who beat Clarinda 51-35 in the first round. The Trojans are led by Senior Paytn Carter averaging 16.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, along with Junior Zoey Kirchhoff averaging 3.6 assists.
“We’ve got to flush that last game,” Klaassen said. “We talked about after the game taking care of the ball. The turnovers were too much on us the other night. Some of it was them forcing us into it, but a lot of it was poor passes that were too high or they’d go through our hands. We’ve got to be physical, attack the boards, take care of the little things, and we should be all right.”
