WEST BURLINGTON – Central Lee’s girls basketball team found a synchronicity of sorts in their win Tuesday night at West Burlington, but it didn’t come easy.
The Hawks walked away with a 66-50 win over the Lady Falcons, but it wasn’t until the fourth quarter when sophomore Kenna Sandoval scored 10 of her game-high 20 points in a low offensive set employed by Head Coach Taylor Hickey.
“I wasn’t happy with the first half, offensively, but we got on them a bit in the second half and then what worked was staying in our low four set and really trying to feed Kenna the ball,” Hickey said.
When the Lady Hawks ran the base spread offense, other shooters like Jayden Mueller and freshman Lizzy Mason were able to get open looks which opened up the inside for Sandoval.
Mason has been a pleasant surprise for the Hawks all year with some long-range shooting, but also handling the guard position and starting the offense.
Mason was averaging just under 13 points per game, but tossed in 19 in Tuesday’s win. The freshman, who played club ball in the Iowa Attack system, said she isn’t concerned with points but helping the team.
“I don’t really keep track of the points. I don’t like looking at it. My role is to help whenever and wherever I’m needed, bringing up the ball, getting an assist, helping on defense,” Mason said.
“Since Taylor and I went through the same thing, that gives us the same mindset and that helps us. But it also helps me bring an asset to the team of running. That’s what Iowa Attack teaches us is to run, run the floor.”
Aside from a 6-6 tie in the first quarter, the Hawks held leads from 2 to 8 points through the first half. With a 28-20 halftime advantage, the Lady Falcons started to cut into the lead in the 3rd period. Senior Taryn Havener’s 3-pointer with four minutes left in the period cut the lead to five at 34-29.
Hickey put the Lady Hawks into a full-court press at that point to push the pace of the game and force some turnovers, but she quickly pulled it off after the Falcons’ Isabella Callison scored in back-to-back possessions on fast breaks cutting the lead to 39-35.
Taylor Jones would score in transition on the next possession and Mason would convert the back end of two freethrows, but West Burlington’s Isabella Blaufuss hit a 3-pointer at the horn to make it a 40-38 game headed into the fourth.
Central Lee would open the fourth with a 7-0 run before Callison scored for the Falcons. But the Hawks would run away in the fourth behind the inside success of Sandoval.
West Burlington falls to 1-4 in the SEI Superconference South, and 1-5 overall, while Central Lee improves to 3-2 in the conference and 3-3 overall.
Hickey said the Hawks were prepared for an aggressive game from the Falcons.
“We knew this was going to be an aggressive game. We worked on rebounding last night in practice. We knew one night wouldn’t be enough to work on it, but they did really well,” she said.
“They worked really well as a team on defense and I think that’s what sparked our offense tonight."
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