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Since the Althoff Feeder Tournament the St James 8th Grade Lady Trojans girl’s basketball team has been on a roll. After winning the Holy Childhood Tournament in convincing fashion last weekend the Lady Trojans returned home Tuesday evening to face the Holy Trinity Lady Titans. The Lady Trojans continued their winning ways defeating the Lady Titans of Holy Trinity 49-13.
The Lady Trojans came out firing immediately. Tory Lanaghan won the opening tip, Mackenzie Weilbacher took the ball and drove to the basket dishing it to teammate Katie Nagel for the easy lay-up and the Lady Trojans were on their way. The quick start for the Lady Trojans is something St James fans have become accustomed to. The Lady Trojans, under the tutelage of Coach Kevin Colbert, have become a fast start team that likes to run and apply pressure on their opponents immediately. And it was no different Tuesday evening as St James grabbed the lead early and then ran away with it, maybe due in part to the fact that Coach Kevin Colbert just doesn’t let his team let up. Even when the Lady Trojans seem to have things under control Coach Colbert admonishes his team as if they are losing the game. An attitude that has helped push his team to be their best and propelled them to the success they have had this season. Coach Colbert talked about Tuesday’s contest, “This was the fourth time we’ve played Holy Trinity so if the opportunity presented itself we wanted to work on some things. We’re pretty good when we play hard and we played much better in the second half tonight, but the objective was to try and mix things up a little bit, try some different combinations on the floor and see where it goes.”
Tuesday evening’s contest was representative of the kind of teamwork that embodies the Lady Trojans. Great friends on and off of the court, these girls work together to achieve success on the court. Everybody seems to contribute in one way or another and Coach Colbert’s bench players are coming around too. They have physical talent combined with an understanding of the game and great team character. The result is a team that’s very hard to beat physically, mentally or emotionally. And while the Lady Trojans aren’t looking past anyone or taking any opponents for granted, their sights are firmly planted on one goal, a Diocese Championship. Coach Colbert said, “I was most encouraged by the play of 8th graders Alexis Colbert and Sophia Hart. Alexis did some nice things tonight scoring and running the break, Sophia played well too. Those are a couple of 8th graders who maybe don’t get to play as much as they’d like and they played well tonight and did some things that were really positive for our team.”
With only three regular season games left the Lady Trojans are preparing for the Diocese Tournament held in Olney, IL March 19th – 21st. As the tournament draws nearer Coach Colbert has been using some of these games where the margin of victory has been large to work on offensive plays and try out new defenses in preparation for the season ending tournament. With an 18-5 lead over the Lady Titans after the first quarter, Coach Colbert used the opportunity to work in some new wrinkles to their offense. The result was their worst scoring quarter of the night, but the Lady Trojans defense was the equalizer. Utilizing a 1-3-1 zone the Lady Trojans were impressive defensively with Katie Nagel at the point, Carli Bowman and Alexa Wilson on the wings, Tory Lanaghan in the middle and Mackenzie Weilbacher on the base line, the Lady Trojans, who already play man-to-man defense and full-court press very effectively, could pose some big problems for teams come tournament time. Coach Colbert said of his team’s defense, “When we play the 1-3-1 zone defense well, I like it a lot. For certain teams it provides an interesting match up. Man-to-man and the 3-2 zone will be our main defenses but it’s nice to able to go to that as well if we need to. In the 1-3-1 Katie Nagel provides some problems for opposing point guards because of her size, her reach and her agility. She’s a good athlete.”
The Lady Trojans are off the rest of this week but will resume play next Monday, March 8th at St Teresa, Tuesday, March 9th at St Clare and then finish the regular season with ‘Rock the House’ night at home vs St John. All 8th grade players and their parents will be acknowledged in a special ceremony before the game. The Southern Illinois Diocese Tournament is March 19th, 20th and 21st in Olney, IL.
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