Huskies pick up first win of season against Firebirds, 43-31
After a low-scoring first half on offense, the Huskies were fueled by a second half comeback to get their first win of the season against Lawrence Free State, 43-31. Senior forward Evan Bail led the Huskies in scoring with 12 points.
December 7, 2017
In their second game of the Lady Hawks Classic on Thursday Dec. 7 at Olathe East, the Huskies had a weak offensive first half against Lawrence Free State. BVNW ended up trailing LFS, 3-8, at the end of the first quarter after three turnovers.
Senior Evan Bail, who was the leading scorer for the Huskies with 12 points, said the defense helped the team to not fall too far behind.
“I just don’t think we were able to be hitting our shots, even though we were playing good defense,” Bail said. “We just weren’t able to make it in but thankfully we made it better in the second half.”
At halftime, the Huskies were trailing the Firebirds, 13-17, but they came out of halftime on a 9-0 run after a combination of 3-pointers from senior guards Kate Kaufman and Bridget Harrison.
Head coach Brian Bubalo said their second half run was led by better offensive execution along with some improved defense.
“We started getting better spacing on offense,” Bubalo said. “Our defense got us some turnovers and fast breaks and finally got in a rhythm to make some shots.”
All throughout the game, Harrison had another successful night from behind the 3-point line, finishing with 10 points for the game. Harrison said after a rough first half she was able to transition into better offense the second half.
“The first half I didn’t get any shots up,” Harrison said. “I didn’t know if I could transition into the second half but I was able to get two threes off the bat, which made me feel a lot better.”
The Huskies went on to defeat the Firebirds, 43-31 and improve to 1-2 on the season. Bubalo said a win was in store for BVNW after how hard the team fought in previous games and at practice.
“We’ve been playing good and hard but we ran into a good team on Tuesday and had a tough loss Saturday,” Bubalo said. “It was nice to get a win.”
The Huskies will play Barstow in the fifth place game in the Lady Hawks Classic on at 5 p.m. Friday Dec. 8 at Olathe East.
