ALTAMONT — A new threat emerged for the Chanute Blue Comets girls, who dispatched the Labette County Grizzlies on the road, 50-34, on Tuesday night in SEK League action.
“Any win at Labette County is a good win,” Chanute head coach Dustin Fox said. “It’s a tough place to play and we haven’t won here often. Playing as well as we did for three quarters was nice to see. We rebounded well. But in the fourth quarter, we didn’t play as well. It was great to learn and still get a win. We’re still young out there, so they’re still growing.”
Chanute poured in 10 3-pointers on 34 attempts from behind the arc.
“We’ve talked for several practices after break about Chanute’s 3-point shooting and their dribble- drive offense. It was frustrating we didn’t adjust to it after harping on it for seven practices,” Labette County head coach Brianna Volmer said. “I’m proud of my kids’ resilience. We made a run too late, but we still challenged them. That’s characteristic of Labette County and we’ll continue to get better. I see bright spots.”
Laney Holtzman led the Blue Comets with 15 points. “She’s been playing really well in practice,” Fox said. “She had a nice JV game before break. We knew we’d give her an opportunity and she carried that over.”
Holtzman had scored eight points on 13 shots in Chanute’s previous six games before Christmas.
“We’ve always known she can shoot it,” Fox said. “But now she has the confidence in her game to make plays. She’s driving and kicking and finding people. Her defense has always been good. You never know when it’ll click for a kid. Hopefully it has for her tonight.”
Sarah Uhner added 13 points for Chanute.
Labette County’s Kaylin McCoy led the Grizzlies with 10 points. The sophomore forward has emerged as a reliable option for the Grizzlies.
“We’re getting her more court time and asking more of her,” Volmer said. “We challenged her before the Parsons game and that paid off. We’ll keep asking for her to get touches. She’s a gym rat and a film kid who’s recognizing what she needs to do to get better.”
Chanute’s press forced the Grizzlies into 24 turnovers, which converted into 16 points for the Blue Comets.
“That has to be our identity,” Fox said. “We don’t have any size. We’ve got to pressure the ball and turn it into a 94-foot game. If teams turn it into a halfcourt game, they’ll have a good chance against us. We like our guards and their ability to speed teams up. I wouldn’t want to be guarded by us for four quarters. I’d get sick of it.”
Labette County has also lacked threatening scoring from 3-point range, connecting on just one against Chanute.
“We’re working on it,” Volmer said. “We struggle with turning the ball over. So post-entry passes get taken away. We’ve got to get the defense to collapse to have an outside presence. And that’s something we have to have.”
Chanute improved to 5-2 overall with the win while Labette County dipped to 2-5.
Up next
Labette County heads north to face Fort Scott in a rematch of last year’s sub-state championship, which the Grizzlies won.
“Fort Scott is Fort Scott. They’re a tough team right now,” Volmer said. “They start five seniors compared to our youth. They’re going to be a tough team to play. They’ve got a chip on their shoulder with us, so that adds pressure.”
