ANNA — Newcomers and underclassmen are aplenty for Fort Loramie and Anna. Both had promising spurts in a Shelby County Athletic League game on Tuesday, but both Fort Loramie coach Carla Siegel and Anna coach Randy Huber said improvement is needed.
Fort Loramie took a big lead in the first quarter and cruised from there to a 41-31 win. It was the first SCAL game of the season by both squads, and the victory keeps an SCAL winning streak alive for Fort Loramie that started in 2018.
The Redskins (2-0) scored four points in the first 30 seconds and took a 7-0 lead by the six-minute mark in the first quarter. They scored the first nine points and led 14-2 at the end of the quarter.
Fort Loramie was unable to replicate that scoring consistency the rest of the way. The squads each scored 10 points in the second quarter. Fort Loramie had a 9-7 scoring edge in the third and was outscored 12-8 in the fourth.
“Defensively, we are where we need to be,” Siegel said. “… I’m happy with where we are there, but offensively, we’ve got a lot of things we need to work on. Our passes are not phenomenal, and we’re struggling to hit our interior shots. I think those are things that will come with time.”
The Redskins have one returning starter and four returning letterwinners from last season. All four participated in either cross country or volleyball and have practiced only for a few weeks, in addition to several other players.
Siegel said players are still trying to find chemistry on offense.
“We have to get the (fall sports athletes) acclimated with the girls that have been in the gym for so long,” Siegel said. “Once we can get that chemistry down, it’s going to help us a lot.”
Sophomore forward Avery Brandewie led the squad with 14 points while senior guard Ava Turner, the squad’s lone returning starter, scored 12. Junior guard Skyler Albers scored seven points.
Fort Loramie had 11 steals and forced Anna into 15 turnovers but committed 18 turnovers.
“Avery had a heck of a game today,” Siegel said. “When our girls play the defense that what we want and get the steals that we want, that helps a lot. We can get into our transition offense. Our half-court offense, we need to get a little bit better at that and make better decisions, better cuts, better passes. But in time, all that stuff should come together.”
The Redskins had a 25-14 rebounding edge and shot 15 for 42 from the floor. Anna shot 8 for 37 from the floor.
“We’re such a young team,” Huber, who is in his first year, said of the Rockets. “Even in our opener (a 48-17 win over New Knoxville), we struggled in that first quarter to get going. It seems like once we were able to get going, get the energy going, we get rolling.
“But being a young team, sometimes we get that energy, and we get going a little faster than we should, and that cost us in this game, if we could have just controlled it a little bit more.”
Junior guard Brenna Cobb, one of six returning letterwinners for Anna, led the squad with eight points.
“What you see in the game, that’s what she gives me in practice,” Huber said. “She’s just up and down the floor. She probably makes a few people mad because she just goes after it so hard in practice. She’s not got her stroke down yet, but I’ve watched her in previous years, and it’s coming. That outside shot is coming; she’s just not finding it right now, partly because of the energy we’re expending to get our team going in the correct direction.”
Huber said sophomore wing/post Makenna Pettus is performing well for the Rockets. Both she and Cobb are two of the six returning letterwinners. Sophomore guard Liz Staudter, senior guard Taylor Poeppelman, junior guard Zandria Platfoot and senior guard Jadyn Huber are also returnees.
