By RYAN WALKER
PONETO — Southern Wells put up a good fight with a brand-new roster in a 67-51 loss to Union City Saturday night.
The 16-point defeat didn’t tell the whole story of what was a solid performance, considering the Raiders graduated four impact seniors from a season ago.
Head coach Jessica Killingbeck has had nothing but good things to say about her nine-player varsity roster that had just one senior on it. In their first game, they were tied with Union City (2-0) 32-32 at the break.
“You look at our roster — we’re young,” Killingbeck said after the game. “I think there’s a lot of positives to take away, and this is just the beginning of this journey with these girls.”
After halftime, it was an entirely different game. Inexperience started to take over the Raiders, and the Indians had a full head of steam.
Luane Schoonbroodt and Gabrielle Ordonez led the charge on a 9-0 run with a pair of buckets to begin the third quarter. Karlee Warner would drain a three coming out of a timeout used by Killingbeck, but the Indians poured on nine more points in a row to take a commanding 50-32 lead.
Southern Wells’ answers became too little in the second half to keep up, but did get forward Ashlie Needler more involved than in the first half. Her four buckets in the third and fourth quarters gave her a team-best 14 points and seven rebounds.
Schoonbroodt, a foreign exchange transfer from Belgium, helped Union City as a force in transition and on the boards. She dropped a game-high 24 points with 15 rebounds, creating opportunities for teammates and even herself on multiple putback scores.
The Indians went on a 35-19 run to finish the game and put a feather in the cap on the Raiders opening night.
When asked what was the main culprit to the second-half collapse, Killingbeck cited its youth as one of the reasons.
“I would say inexperience, and I think stamina, too,” Killingbeck said. “When we got tired, we stopped boxing out, and (Schoonbrodt) is a heck of a ball player. She tore us up a little bit.”
Perhaps the most pleasant part Southern Wells could take from its first game was the three-point shooting.
The team posted an 8-18 clip from long-range from four different players.
Warner, Collena and Gracie Reeves, and Kyah Thomas all found the bottom of the net, three of whom are finding new roles for the first time on varsity.
The team this year will have brand new shooters to cover the floor with Needler and Kenzie Paxson (who had eight points) down by the block.
Was it a fluke? Killingbeck didn’t think so with what she’d seen in the early-season practices.
“I would say expect more,” Killingbeck said about the three-point shooting. “We’ve been shooting the ball really well in practice. We’ve been doing a lot of reps within our offense, focusing on footwork and being low and in a stance. They’re really buying in doing and really trying to do those things, which I think has increased. We’ve got quite a few shooters this year.”
Southern Wells will travel to Union on Tuesday starting at 6 p.m.
Southern Wells won the junior varsity match 32-23. Jailynn Chase and Remi Holmes led the way with eight points, while Erika Beavans had seven.
sports@news-banner.com
UNION CITY 67, SOUTHERN WELLS 51
at Southern Wells
UNION CITY (0-0): Luane Schoonbroodt 10-17 2-6 24, Aubrey Black 5-9 3-4 14, Gabrille Ordonez 3-9 2-2 10, Shannen Smith 3-8 2-2 8, Campbell Kerns 2-8 2-2 6, Annaliese Banda 0-1 0-0 0, Sofie Emrick 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 24-53 11-18 67.
SOUTHERN WELLS (0-1): Ashlie Needler 6-13 2-6 14, Collena Reeves 3-12 0-0 9, Kyah Thomas 3-5 0-0 8, Gracie Reeves 2-5 2-2 7, Kenzie Paxson 4-7 0-0 8, Karlee Warner 2-8 0-0 6, Bre Leidig 1-5 0-0 2, Erika Beavans 0-1 0-0 0, Kaylea Coffel 0-0 0-0 0, Aubree Meyer 0-0 0-0 0. TOTAL: 20-54 4-8 51.
Union City 14 18 20 15 — 67
So. Wells 16 16 10 9 — 51
Three Point FG: Union City 5-8 (Schoonbrodt 2-3, Ordonez 2-3, Black 1-2), Southern Wells 8-18 (C. Reeves 3-7, Warner 2-6, Thomas 2-3, G. Reeves 1-1, Beavans 0-1). Rebounds: Union City 31 (Schoonbrodt 15, Smith 6, Kerns 4, Black 3, Ordonez 2 Banda 1) Southern Wells 26 (Needler 7, Leidig 6, Paxson 6, G. Reeves 3, Warner 2, C. Reeves 1, Coffel 1). Turnovers: Union City 10, Southern Wells 15. Fouls: Union City 9, Southern Wells 12. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: None.
