Raiders’ pressure gives Chieftains fits in loss
The Tonganoxie girls’ basketball team came into Friday’s season opener against Immaculata with high hopes.
The Chieftains left Leavenworth with another loss in a series of defeats to the Raiders. Immaculata won, 58-31.
“I think it’s mental,” THS coach Leslie Foster said. “We see that green Immac jersey and we get nervous.”
Immaculata’s full-court press didn’t help Tonganoxie’s anxiety level either.
The Raiders pressed much of the game, and the Chieftains had 23 turnovers. It’s a defense Immaculata ran last year, and Foster said her team worked on it throughout the week.
“I tried to refresh their minds at halftime,” Foster said.
Neither team came out of the gate scoring. The Raiders did have a 13-6 edge after the first quarter and the Chieftains trailed by 10 at halftime, but couldn’t cut the deficit to single digits in the second half.
The Chieftains didn’t help their own cause. They missed nine shots in the paint and were 3-for-9 from the free throw line.
The team also was 14-for-44 from the field, shooting 32 percent.
“I told them ‘yeah, we lost, but we have to move on and learn from this,'” Foster said.
Senior Aimee Eisman led scoring with 12 points. She also led the team in rebounding with nine. Senior Keri Walker and junior Jennifer Reischman added four rebounds each.
The team had 25 rebounds, 17 of which were defensive rebounds.
Eisman was 6-of-10 from the field and Walker led free throw shooting, going 2-for-2.
THS also forced six turnovers, and Walker had four of them.
Senior Andrea Korb was the assists leader with four, counting for half of the team total, while senior Erin Seymour had two of the team’s six steals.
Walker and freshman Addie Heim each had one block.
The Chieftains will play Friday at De Soto after they hosted Perry-Lecompton on Tuesday.
Foster hopes her team will be more settled in upcoming games.
“We have to be more patient,” Foster said. “We have to let our offense materialize.”
Injury report
Senior Alicia Stauch is out for an indefinite amount of time with a foot injury.
Tonganoxie (0-1, 0-1) 6 8 7 10 31
Immaculata (1-0, 1-0) 13 11 16 18 58
Tonganoxie: Eisman, 12; Walker, 8; Korb, 4; Heim, 4; Reischman, 3.
Immaculata: Kersten, 14; Bassett, 11; Kelly, 11; Vosseler, 5; Leintz, 5; Dolan, 4; Donnelson, 2; Ezell, 2; Theis, 2; Snow, 2.