Loyal girls earn substantial win over Thorp

The Loyal girls basketball team set themselves up for success at home against the Thorp Cardinals after getting out to a substantial lead in the first six minutes of the game. The Nov. 30 Loyal win opened with two free throw points from Loyal’s Sheila Tellock, one of two double-digit scorers on her team.

Shortly after her free throws, Tellock made a jump shot off an assist from Olivia Nikolai. Then Addysen Wolf got a fast break to score another two, as did Nikolai, to put the Greyhounds up by 8 less than two minutes into the game.

The Greyhounds kept adding to their lead with baskets by Tellock, Autumn Zvolena, Mallory Jakobi and Summer Smith. That scoring combined with an aggressive approach to defense led the Greyhounds to go all the way up to 25 points before the Cardinals were able to get any points on the board. Finally, the Cardinals broke through with a jumper at 11:53 remaining in the half. But once they got that first basket, the rest came easier.

As the half wore on, the Greyhounds started to tire. The Loyal girls were kept from increasing their lead due to some clumsy ball handling and settling for poor looks instead of waiting for the better shot. Thorp kept pace with Loyal for the rest of the half, scoring 14 more points, as did Loyal. This put the score at 39-16 at halftime.

In the second half, the Greyhounds earned 20 more points while the Cardinals scored nearly the same, with 19. That was enough to give Loyal the 59-35 win, showing just how critical those opening minutes of the game were when the Hounds got out to their sizable lead.

The Greyhounds had seven players see substantial playing time (14 minutes or more), with the rest of the squad getting two minutes or less. As the team is fairly young, with Tellock being the lone senior, and being it is early on in the season, the team is still working on sorting out roles and determining who will take a leadership position.

Zvolena was her team’s leading scorer, with 19 points. Tellock scored 16 points, including two 3-pointers. Jordynn Corder had 8 points, Nikolai had 7, Jakobi had four points, Wolf and Smith each had 2, and Annika Schley picked up 1. Tellock brought down six rebounds for her team, Wolf and Zvolena each had five.

The Greyhounds had an overall field goal percentage of 38 percent, more than Thorp’s 29 percent. The Hounds went 50 percent at the line, while the Cardinals made 41 percent of their free throws.

Editor Valorie Brecht contributed to this report.

Above left, Olivia Nikolai goes for a layup during the team’s game against Thorp Nov. 30. She scored 7 points during the game. At left, Mallory Jakobi makes a shot from just inside the 3-point line. She scored 4 points for the Greyhounds against Thorp.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS