Waubonsie Valley not satisfied with win

The disgusted look on Waubonsie Valley junior Tami Morice's face said it all.

Morice, after scoring 21 points in Tuesday's opener, fouled out with only 2 points in Thursday night's 45-28 Upstate Eight Conference win over East Aurora.

Center Rachael Ross followed Morice to the bench a few moments later. Thus was the night that both teams endured, limited to shooting free throws and playing more reserves with key starters sitting next to their respective coaches for the majority of the game.

“I'm really frustrated,” Morice said. “I don't even know. That was just bad. I didn't move my feet enough.”

Waubonsie's depth came through in the win. Senior Jordan Myers came off the bench to again score in double figures with 10 and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Tia Brooks recovered from a poor opener to score 12 points and pull in 10 rebounds, while Tanysha Gardner-Wells also had a solid night for the Warriors (2-0, 1-0), scoring 10 points and grabbing 5 rebounds.

But there are many lessons to be learned from a night like this.

“We did enough to win,” Warriors coach Kim Connell said. “Obviously, we got in foul trouble early, which we fouled a lot last year. It's something we need to work on. Especially fouls called from being out of position.”

The good news for Waubonsie was East Aurora (1-1, 0-1) failed to capitalize when the Warriors made mistakes.

“Waubonsie is a pretty decent squad,” Tomcats coach William Anderson said. “They did a decent job executing. We had them rattled in episodes, but we weren't able to sustain our effort on the defensive end. They got some second shots, which killed us on the boards. It's a young team, a new team just trying to find our way.”

Tomcats point guard Jazmin Villa led the team with 11 points and 3 steals, but Waubonsie Valley outrebounded East Aurora 35-18.

East Aurora guard Jasmine Plummer was in the middle of an 8-0 run by the Tomcats to start the third period and close the Warriors' lead to 5 before the better team pulled away.

“We did a much better job playing harder,” Anderson said. “We got them to turn the ball over, we just didn't convert on their turnovers. Got to the free-throw line a lot, but didn't make our shots.”

Waubonsie is at least happy to suffer through these ugly games early in the season and utilize some different players.

“We had a lot of people come off the bench,” Brooks said. “They need to step up too because we're all a team and we all need to do what we're supposed to do when we're on the court.”