By Ben McGuire
Tuesday night the girls basketball team beat Beckman Catholic in a home matchup, 52-25. The Mustangs were coming off of a big win, beating Anamosa by 31 points Friday night. Senior guard Libby Ryan led the team in scoring with 17 points. “It feels great,” said Ryan. “Things are starting to click for us as a team and we are playing more consistent basketball,” she said about her team’s last two wins.
Despite a blowout loss in their season opener to 5A Marion, 60-24, the Mustangs are off to an impressive start to the season. In all four of their wins they’ve won by a margin of 19 points or more, including a 61-14 demolishing of Vinton-Shellsburg back on Dec. 2.. “I feel like we’ve built up our team’s confidence, as a whole and as individual players,” said junior forward Catherine Yeoman. The team has certainly been playing with confidence these last two games, winning by an average of 29 points. “But we also know that we can’t stop winning or let down at all. We know we have to keep working hard in practice if we want to achieve or goals,” Yeoman said..
“We weren’t hitting our shots last night, so we knew our defense had to dial up the intensity a little bit if we were going to get this win,” said Ryan. The ‘Stangs true key to winning has been their defense. Holding opponents to just over 30 points per game in wins. “Our coaches always emphasize to never get “out hustled” by the other team,” said Ryan, who led the team with five steals and was all over the place on both ends of the court.
The Mustangs have high hopes for this season, but they have way to go. With a whole lot of season ahead the girls know what they need to accomplish their goals and are going to continue to work day in and day out. Their next game is this Friday, Dec. 16, at West Delaware.
