No. 10 Bullettes roll Lady Hawks

DONNELLSON — Playing Mediapolis for the first time this season was going to be a challenge for Central Lee’s girls basketball team.

Facing the 10th-ranked (Class 3A) Bullettes in the first game after Christmas break just added to that challenge.

Central Lee coach Taylor Hickey knows her team will see Mediapolis at least one more time in the regular season, and maybe in the postseason as well. The 62-29 loss on Friday night showed Hickey what her team needs to work on for the next time.

“I like seeing these good teams, and we need that and that structure and to go back to practice and draw up new things on how we can continue to develop and not stay complacent,” she said.

What she didn’t like was how the Hawks (4-3 overall, 4-2 SEISC South Division) were too tentative against the Bullettes (9-0, 6-0).

“Basketbal is a mental sport, and it's easy to get psyched out and and overthink things, and I saw that in the beginning,” Hickey said. “They missed a lot of layups in the first quarter, but instead of getting the rebound, we let down after they got past us like, ‘Oh, they’re going to make a layup,’ instead of getting back and going for a rebound.”

Mediapolis’ pressure defense that has bothered teams all season, and it certainly bothered the Hawks, who had turnovers on their first three possessions.

“We knew we had Mediapolis as the first game out of the break, and so during the break we worked on breaking the press,” Hickey said. “A press can make anyone feel anxious, and I thought in practice, once we worked on it a lot, we felt confident. But tonight we were too tentative at times, and then when we did break the press and got into our half-court offense, we continued to have problems. We would have a couple of really good possessions, and then we would take three steps back.

“When we got to the half-court side, man, we weren't doing the things that we're capable of doing. We were timid, not looking to be strong around the perimeter. I mean, we have Kenna (Sandoval) inside, battling as hard as she can and we tried to get the ball into her. And it just … I always tell them bad passes lead to bad shots. And that happened at times.”

Sandoval finished with 17 points, but no other Central Lee player scored more than four points.

Grace Holsteen led Mediapolis with 26 points.

Central Lee plays next Tuesday at Van Buren and Friday at Holy Trinity.

“This game taught us a lot, and we’ll get back to practice and work on what we learned,” Hickey said.