Royal girls start hoops campaign with losses

ROYAL CITY - There was a tough start to the new Royal High School girls basketball season last week.

The Knights went down, 50-17, to Medical Lake and, 66-24, to Cle Elum.

"I feared we would start that way, being our first game, and they had already played two games," coach Phil Daubel said. "With a young team, they have to realize the intensity level has to be up from the opening jump."

The bright spot for the Knights was the overall play of Kayla Smith. She scored 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and made two steals. Kailee Harris had four points, and Brittany Hebdon had two points and seven rebounds.

The Knights have only three girls with significant varsity experience, and it showed against Cle Elum. The Warriors' tight defense caused 37 turnovers.

"We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball," Daubel said.

More girls contributed significantly in this game. Jackie Guadarrama led with nine points. Flor Araujo and Smith had six each. Hebdon had nine rebounds, Smith seven and Araujo five.

Daubel said the girls need to improve their shooting accuracy overall and especially take advantage of easy opportunities around the basket. He said he saw signs the girls will improve.

He'll learn more in this coming busy week. Royal will play non-leaguers at Cascade tonight and Quincy Thursday night. They will open South Central A Conference East play at home against River View on Friday and at Wahluke on Saturday.