Lady Rockets improve to 7-0 with win over Geibel
JEFFERSON — The Jefferson-Morgan girls’ basketball team continued their winning ways and remained unbeaten by limiting Geibel Catholic to 18 points in the final three quarters for a 44-29 triumph in Section 3-A.
After trailing 11-8 at the end of one, the Lady Rockets (7-0, 3-0) outscored the visitors by a 36-18 margin the rest of the way.
“We were in man and it just didn’t work in the first quarter,” J-M coach Chris Niemiec said. “We went to a zone the rest of the game and we were still able to put pressure on the ball and forced turnovers. They were able to dribble-drive against our man, so we switched to zone and played more help defense.”
J-M’s offense was led by the play of Kayla Yorko, who tallied 19 points and made five shots from beyond the arc.
Ally Bogden contributed seven first-half points for the Lady Rockets, while Morgan Simkovic and Nicole Venick added five points apiece.
Riley Bocan and Keyonna McCrae led the Lady Gators (2-2, 1-2) with seven points each, while Gillian Yourish garnered six points off the bench.
“We kind of hung are heads in the second quarter when we struggled on offense,” Geibel coach Shawn Holup said. “We are still in the process of learning how to win a big game. We are always fighting, but tonight we missed some easy shots which hurt us.”
After Geibel took an early 7-4 lead in the opening quarter, J-M responded with a 4-1 rally keyed by a trey from Bogden and a free throw by Erin Confortini.
The Lady Gators broke the 8-8 deadlock when Yourish connected on a trey.
In the second quarter, the Lady Rockets countered with a 10-4 spree that gave them the lead back at 18-15 after a 3-pointer by Yorko.
After a basket by McCrae for Geibel, J-M ended the first half with three free throws and took a 21-17 lead into halftime.
Only 14 points were scored in the third frame, and Yorko had six of those after making two more treys in the quarter. J-M carried a 29-21 edge into the final eight minutes.
“There are not a lot of players in our classification that can shoot the ball like Kayla,” Niemiec said. “She is a pure shooter and is very hard to stop once she gets going. When she starts to get her shots, it opens up so much for the rest of our offense.”
The Lady Gators trimmed the deficit to 32-27 after a basket from McCrae, but the Lady Rockets put the game away by scoring 12 of the final 14 points in the contest.
“Our defense has been our key early in the season,” Holup said. “This is the most points we gave up this year and coming into the game we only gave up an average of 28 points. We rotate well on defense and are aggressive at that end. We make teams work.”
In the 12-2 run to end the game, Yorko made another trey and added two transition lay-ups to secure the victory.
“I thought we had a chance of being 7-0 to start the year,” Niemiec said. “I knew we were capable, but I wasn’t completely sure. These kids are unselfish and they are willing to make that extra pass. Winning is contagious. There’s just a comfort level now with the kids and the coaching staff.”