MCHS girls beat Iroquois

In the first two games the Mitchell Christian girls’ basketball team has played, the Eagles have 48 steals.

MCHS had 27 steals in Tuesday’s season-opening win over Wolsey-Wessington. On Friday, the Eagles had 21 steals in a 66-18 win over Iroquois at the Mitchell Christian School gym.

“That is, once again, what we focus on is our defense,” MCHS coach Jackie Van Laecken said. “I keep telling them to get better each and every game with our defense and rebounding and we will stay in a lot of games.”

The Eagles outrebounded Iroquois 30-27, and Iroquois ended up with 34 turnovers in the loss.

“We want to use our agility and our speed, and we want to get after it every time and push the ball as much as we can,” Van Laecken said. “We just see how many turnovers we can cause.”

MCHS improved to 2-0 as the Eagles had just eight turnovers and 22 assists.

Alexa Van Laecken led MCHS with 23 points, seven assists, seven steals and had seven rebounds. Becca Glanzer followed with 13 points, Katelyn Held had 10 points, six rebounds and four steals, Emily Reynen added 10 points and Ellie Bleeker had eight rebounds.

Alexa Van Laecken said she and Becca Glanzer have worked a lot on being leaders in the full-court press MCHS runs.

“We all work pretty hard on our defense, and Becca and I have been working together for a long time,” she said. “We know what we are doing and how each other works and that’s helpful.”

The Eagles started the game off with a 12-0 lead before Iroquois made its first bucket with 2:54 left in the first quarter. By halftime, MCHS had a 37-8 lead.

The Eagles did not slow down in the second half and had a 51-15 lead after the third quarter and added 15 more points in the fourth quarter.

“That’s the thing with these girls, the are never afraid to shoot or get after it,” Jackie Van Laecken said. “That’s a good problem to have that they all want to shoot the basketball. It was a total team effort

“They are all decent ball players and decent shooters and we are excited.”

Mitchell Christian plays today at Wessington Springs.

Mitchell Christian 66, Iroquois 18

MCHS (2-0)

Alexa Van Laecken 10 0-1 23; Becca Glanzer 5 1-2 13; Katelyn Held 5 0-0 10; Brittany Zoss 2 0-0 4; Emily Reynen 5 0-0 10; Khiree Held 1 0-0 2; Ellie Bleeker 2 0-1 4. Totals 30 1-3 66.

Iroquois (0-2)

Jessica Peterson 0; Amber Jacobs 2; Shelby Matthews 8; Shayla Simons 0; Alex Hanson 0; Britney Madler 6; Haley DeJong 2; Kelsey Blue 0; Erin Rucher 0. Totals 18.

I 4 8 15 18

MCHS 17 37 51 66

3-point goals: MCHS 5 (Van Laecken 3, Glanzer 2); Rebounds: MCHS 30 (Bleeker 8), I 27 (Madler 7); Assists: MCHS 22 (Van Laecken 7); Steals: MCHS 21 (Van Laecken 7), I 2 (Two players with 1); Turnovers: MCHS 8, I 34.

Tags: sports, basketball, updates, eagles, mchs