Women capture first victory of season

After going zero and four, the Chadron State women’s basketball team sealed their first victory Saturday night  against Western State. Action started on Friday, however, when the Eagles played the Colorado Mesa Mavericks.

The game started off with a couple turnovers for Chadron, before anyone could make a basket. A minute into the game, Hattie Guzman, redshirt freshman guard of Scottsbluff, was able to put points on the board with a jump shot. Guzman only ended up with three points for the game, but had four assists as well. Another key scorer for the Eagles was Dallas Shaw, sophomore guard of Buffalo, Wyo., who led in points with 11.

The Mesa Mavericks, now 5-0, shot 62.5 percent from the field and made 20 of 32 field goals in the second half. Top scorer was Kelsey Sigl, who made 17 points and was followed by teammate Bruna Diechmann, who scored 15 points off the bench. Mesa outscored Chadron in points from the bench with 51 compared to just eight for the Eagles.

A big factor to Chadron’s scoring difficulties was Colorado’s Mesa’s constricting defense. The Mavericks held Chadron to only 11 points in the first half. Overall, Chadron had a 25 shooting percentage for the game. The Mavericks doubled that and shot a 50 percent to claim the 87-43 victory. They also caused 26 turnovers, and were able to score 25 points off of those turnovers.

“Mesa State is a veteran club and we did not handle their defensive pressure very well in the first half,” Head Coach Tim Connealy.

Mesa also had a 35.3 shooting percentage from three-point range, compared to Chadron’s 26.7 percent. Both Chadron and Mesa were close in free throws, with Chadron making 13 of 17 and Mesa making 15 of 20.

Looking to redeem themselves at home, the women athletes were in the right mindset on Saturday when they went up against Western State.

Chadron was the first to get points on the board with a jumper from Kattie Ranta, junior guard of Rapid City, S.D. Ranta led the Eagles in points with 19 in 21 minutes of playing time due to foul trouble. After the score being tied four times in the first half, Chadron was able to pull ahead making the score 39-33 at half. The Eagles scored the same amount of points in the second half to win the game 78-70.

Another top scorer for Chadron was Dallas Shaw, sophomore guard of Buffalo, Wyo., who scored 15 points and had three assists.

“We did a good job against Mesa, but we need to keep picking ourselves up after losses and keep focusing on the right things that we learn in practice,” Shaw said.

The Eagles field goal attempt percentage doubled from the night before when they averaged a 51 percent. They were also 46.7 percent from three point range. Their defense also improved as Sadie Waugh, senior forward of Paxton, grabbed eight and Ranta helped out with six.

For Western, Desiree Smith led the Mountaineers with 22 points, and three other players scored in double digits. Chadron also had four players in double digits, but they had more players score off the bench. Chadron tallied 22 bench points, while Mesa made a measly two.

“This win will help us keep in mind that we can keep up with RMAC teams and any team can be beaten any day,” Shaw said.

 

This weekend, the Eagles travel to Colorado to take on Colorado Mines on Friday and Colorado Christian on Saturday. Both games start at 5 p.m.

 

“We will learn from this win like we do every game and hopefully improve in areas that we need to,” Connealy said.