Royal uses big first half to record win at Soap Lake
Lindsey Christensen and her Royal Lady Knights teammates took on Soap Lake last night. Royal won 36-26.
SOAP LAKE - A strong first half of play was just what the Royal
Lady Knights needed.
SOAP LAKE - A strong first half of play was just what the Royal Lady Knights needed.
Royal and their hosts, the Soap Lake Lady Eagles played with the hope that one of them would leave the gym with their first win of the season in hand.
Checkmate, Royal.
Behind a 22-8 first half performance, Royal (1-7) held off a gallant comeback attempt to hold off Soap Lake 36-26.
Soap Lake (0-7) tried to put together a full court, man-to-man press, and it paid dividends as they tried to crawl back into the contest.
"If you would have told me we would win a game with 36 turnovers I would say you were lying," Royal head coach Phil Daubel said. "It still feels great because the girls played hard. We had a full team again with the end of Christmas Break and that helped."
Soap Lake forced 24 Royal turnovers in the second half.
"We put in a man-to-man press and the girls accepted it really well," Soap Lake head coach Igor Lukashevich said. "The girls picked it up as a natural thing and did very well. Maybe I should have went alot earlier with it because it might have been a different game."
Royal jumped out to a 10-4 lead after the first quarter and then bumped the margin up by halftime.
"We couldn't make a lay-in and we had a lot of opportunities," Lukashevich said. "We just couldn't connect with the backboard and the rim."
Diana Shtyba led the Lady Eagles with 14 points and nine rebounds while Deonne Ramm also grabbed up nine rebounds.
"All of my players are young and still learning," Lukashevich said. "I liked the intensity they showed after halftime and put everything into it."
Pacing the Lady Knights were Steph Guadarrama who ended up with 12 points and Lindsey Christensen who scored seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
"Steph basically runs the show for us from the point and the team executed at major points which helped a lot," Daubel said. "Our defensive intensity tonight was a lot better and we were able to cause some turnovers. The girls were pretty excited and really happy."