Opening night

The Crete Challenger or CHESS Patriot girls basketball team (I'm getting sick of these teams with two names) opened their 2008-2009 season tonight at Hinsdale Adventist Academy. This was the first game of any kind for three of the girls. All the rest have only played one season before this one. The inexperience showed as the girls lost, 41-12.

The girls had trouble getting into their offense right off the bat, and were tentative on defense. Hinsdale scored rather easily and often, and led after one quarter, 16-0.

Becca Dorn get the team going with a long bank shot early in the second quarter. It seemed some of the nervousness wore off and the girls got a little more aggressive. Kara Boss and Rachel Eizenga also scored in the quarter, and Coach Boss changed to a man-to-man defense which confused Hinsdale a little. The scoring in the quarter was even, 6-6, and the half ended 22-6.

In the third quarter, the girls seemed to regress in aggressiveness which hurt them both in offense and defense. The girls were throwing up some very long shots, none of which went in. Hinsdale shut out the girls again, this time 8-0 and the score at the end of three was 30-6.

The aggressiveness, especially from Kara, picked up in the fourth. They had a few fast breaks, only one of which they converted (Kara). Kara also hit a long three and Rachel got a free throw. The problem was they gave up eleven points in the quarter and the final score was 41-12.

Leading scorer was Kara with seven, followed by Rachel with three and Becca with two. Kara and Alyssa DeBoer each had seven rebounds to lead the team. Rachel had the only assist. Becca had two steals, while Kara, Rachel and Lee Bianchi each had one. Rachel had three blocked shots and Kara had one. On the negative side, Kara had eight turnovers and Cassidy Schaap had five. The team shot 5 for 28, 17.9 per cent shooting and one for five from the free throw line, 20%.

Next game is at 7:30 PM Monday, December 8 at Crossroads in Yorkville or some such place. Kristi will have the details in the next few days. There is also a game Tuesday at Christian Liberty at 5:00