Showing progress is important. The progress shown by the Malcolm girls’ basketball team from game one to game two was noticeable. After struggling their way through the Dec. 8 season opener with a 37-28 win over Conestoga, the No. 5 Clippers came home Dec. 12 to pull away with a 44-30 win over a solid Cross County team.
There was reason for concern early on against Cross County as the Lady Cougars jumped out to a 9-0 lead.
“Not good,” Malcolm head coach Andy Klepper said. “They came out in a full court press and we got a little rattled right at the start.
“We called a timeout, the girls settled down and things got better from there.”
The Clippers cut the lead to just one point by the end of the opening frame and then rolled through the second quarter, taking a ten-point lead into the halftime break.
“We got them out of their press and ours started working,” Klepper said. “They’ve played more games than we have and they played a close game the night before. Their legs may have gotten tired.”
Against the much taller Cougars who have three starters at 5-feet-11 or taller, it was Malcolm’s Emma Brown that took control inside. The 6-foot sophomore scored three times in the paint during the second quarter.
Cross County cut Malcolm’s lead in half by the end of the third quarter but the Clippers pulled away by outscoring the Cougars 12-3 in the fourth.
“It was a big improvement over the first game,” Klepper said. “We limited our turnovers, we hit a few more shots and we played really good defense.”
Alyssa Fortik led Malcolm with 15 points and five steals while Brown recorded a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
At Conestoga, points were harder to come by as the Clippers hit on 23% of their shots from the field and went just 4-of-24 from behind the arc.
“Like Cross County, Conestoga is a much bigger team than ours so we took a lot of shots from the outside,” Klepper said. “We didn’t need all of them that night but we will need those shots to start falling.
“I’m hopeful, now that we’re back in the gym that our shooting will continue to improve.”
Diamond Sedlak led a balanced attack against Conestoga. The sophomore sharp shooter hit a pair of three-pointers and scored eight points. Joslyn Small and Fortik each scored seven while Ashlynn Sehi finished with six. Small led the team with seven steals.
Malcolm (2-0) will host Elmwood-Murdock (3-1) Tuesday and No. 7 Weeping Water (2-2) Friday before heading to Raymond Central (0-2) on Saturday.
“We’ll have some challenging games this week for sure,” Klepper said. “We need to keep using our practice time to get better and the things we do that make us hard to beat.”
