The Hydro-Eakly Lady Bobcats basketball team won three games this week and won the West Central tournament for the second year in a row.
In the first round Tuesday, they defeated Corn Bible Academy 76-33. Thursday, they defeated Thomas-Fay-Custer 56-32 and Saturday in the championship game, they beat Canute 63-39.
“The best part of this week is we know where we need to be and what we need to work on,” coach Jeremy Tharp said. “We are getting our chemistry back and are girls are back healthy. We gave great effort and played hard, but there are a few things we need to improve on such as adjusting better to an offense we may have or have not seen. We know we need to fine tune our game because we have the fundamentals down.”
Macey Buss made the all-tournament team and Rees Berkey was the all-tournament MVP.
“I am really excited for this award, but I did not expect it,” Berkey said. “I thought I could have played better, but my teammates helped me get the award by how hard we all played.”
Hydro-Eakly 76,
Corn Bible 33
Hydro-Eakly opened the game on a 10-2 run. Buss scored six of those 10 points for Hydro-Eakly. Corn Bible closed the first quarter on a 6-1 run with plays like Corn Bible’s Brooklen Roberts getting her own rebound, than scoring a layup. Hydro-Eakly was ahead 11-8 at the end of the first quarter. Hydro-Eakly forced 8 turnovers in the first quarter.
The Lady Bobcats outscored Corn Bible 22-5 to take a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter. Corn Bible trailed 41-20 at halftime. Each team went stride-for-stride in the third quarter, but the Lady Bobcats were ahead 55-28 going into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Bobcats won the game 76-33 and only allowed five points in the fourth quarter.
“It always is good to win the first game in any tournament,” Tharp said. “This game was hard for us to get up for since we were the top seed. I feel like we could have played better, but tonight was the first night we had everyone in. Our chemistry is not quite there yet, but I thought we played hard and gave great effort.”
Hydro-Eakly 56,
Thomas-Fay-Custer 32
The game was a tight one and neither team could really gain an advantage. Hydro-Eakly was ahead 13-10 and Buss scored six of those 13 points in the first quarter.
Hydro-Eakly opened the second quarter on a 17-0 run. Thomas scored its first points of the second quarter on a Katelyn Jones free throw with 2:55 left in the second quarter. The Lady Bobcats were ahead 30-12 at halftime.
“I thought we played well in the first half,” Tharp said. “There were a few times with substitutions where we got lost. Every now and then, we are confused because we are starting to throw new things into our game, but our chemistry is looking better.”
Thomas would not go away with plays like Kyla Megli scoring a layup. The Lady Bobcats were ahead 45-23 going into the fourth quarter. Hydro-Eakly won the game 56-32. Tharp said everyone played well and seven girls scored points for the Lady Bobcats.
“Nobody really stood out,” Tharp said. “We have been having games where one girls scores a bunch of points. If multiple girls are scoring, it means they are forcing us to play as a team and what made us so good the last two years, we had five or six girls who scored eight to 14 points. That makes us tough to beat and tough to prepare for.”
Hydro-Eakly 63,
Canute 39
Hydro-Eakly started fast with a 7-1 advantage. Canute came back to make it a one-possession game, but the Lady Bobcats were in front 9-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was a defensive showdown for both squads. Hydro-Eakly closed the second quarter on a 5-0 run and was ahead 18-11 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Hydro-Eakly opened up a 26-18 lead with plays like Rees Berkey scoring a layup, midway through the third quarter.
Canute was called with a technical foul and Rachel Barry shot free throws. She made both of them, giving Hydro-Eakly a 28-18 lead. The Lady Bobcats outscored Canute 12-5 to end the third quarter and was ahead 40-23 at the end of the third quarter. Kira Berkey scored 15 of those 40 points.
Kira Berkey hit a 3-pointer making the score 50-30. Hydro-Eakly won the championship 63-39 and Kira Berkey scored 20 points in the game.
“I told the girls we have to be better at adjusting,” Tharp said. “In the second half, we did a better job making adjustments. On defense, we were not lined up right on the press. Kira Berkey did a good job scoring.”
Hydro-Eakly improves to 16-3 and Tharp said the girls just need to focus and they need to keep improving their game.
“I am proud of our girls’ effort,” Tharp said. “We just have to keep improving our chemistry and stay healthy. We have lots of good things we want to run and are easing into running some sets for the playoffs.”