Lady Eagles maul Malden in opener

The Oran High School girls basketball teams picked up wins in their openers last night at Malden.  The junior varsity won 38-24 while the varsity rolled to an 81-24 victory.

Coach Ethan Evans said of his younger squad, "I thought we got off to a good start. We did a good job of getting the ball inside and hitting some easy baskets. After that we kind of let up defensively and looked like we were just trying to coast in the 2nd half. Going forward we will need to play all 4 quarters with the same intensity as the first one."

Freshman Katie Webb led all scorers during the junior varsity contest.  She totaled 16 points in only two-quarters of play.  Taylor and Mallory Lowes had 11 apiece.

Savannah Below scored four points, Kennedi McVay added two and Alyssa Spane chipped in a free-throw.  Every Eagle dressed out saw action.

As a team, they hit 4 of 6 from the line for 67%.

The varsity game was never in doubt.

Oran scored the first 17 points before the Green Wave hit a field goal four minutes into the game. They would not score again until the 5:15 mark of quarter two when the hosts hit a free throw to make the score 39-3.  It was 61-8 at the intermission.

Coach Evans said, "Overall this was a good 1st game. We moved the ball well and our defense looked pretty good for the most part. I thought we looked good in the press and our half-court defense created a lot of turnovers."

Leah Cauble picked up where she left off last season.  She had 32 points, six steals and five rebounds. Cauble hit six of eight free throw attempts.   Jessie Long scored 18 and also grabbed five boards.  Kaylee Payne rounded out the double-digit scoring with 13.  She was 3 of 3 from the line and had four assists and four steals.

Webb added eight points at the varsity level.  Katelyn Streeter scored six and dished out four assists and had two steals.  Taylor Lowes added a field goal.  Claire Ramsey also had two points.  She handed out a team-high seven assists and had four steals.

Oran was 9 of 13 from the charity stripe for 69%.

Once again the entire bench saw action.

The game featured a running clock the entire second-half.

The varsity will be back in action this evening at 6 pm in a conference match-up at Scott County Central.  The Bravettes do not have a junior varsity team so there will be only one game.