Pulling away in the second half, the Chanute Blue Comets girls took down the Parsons Vikings, 58-45, on Friday night in SEK League play.
“We’ve played better,” Chanute head coach Dustin Fox said. “We were a little sloppy early. Defensively, it didn’t feel like we were as connected as we needed to be. When we were ready to make a run, we didn’t pull away early because we had some breakdowns. I’ll never apologize for a road league win. But I know we can play better than we did tonight.”
After leading, 27-22, at halftime, Chanute raced ahead from the Vikings as the game waned.
“The two biggest things were that we started getting more shots instead of turnovers,” Fox said. “And our guards attacked gaps in the zone instead of just passing it around. Defensively, we did a better job of not letting them have easy shots. There were too many shots we let (Braelyn) Hinman-Mitchell and (Ayanna) Robertson get to the basket. They’re pretty athletic at the rim and we don’t have the size to defend it.”
Parsons head coach Erik Lyons cited a depleted bench for contributing to depth issues in the loss.
“It’s been disjointed for us with some sickness after the tournament,” Lyons said. “We had girls down. But that doesn’t take anything away from Chanute. They’re a solid basketball team. I knew we’d have to play well. I felt like we competed for a long period of time. But we ran out of a little bit of gas and just didn’t rebound. It just got away from us.”
The Vikings also struggled dealing with Chanute’s press.
“In those situations, we’ve got to value the basketball,” Lyons said. “That led to us getting worn down as well. Chanute’s young girls aren’t afraid. They get in there and scrap and it’s constant pressure. That wore us down and led to easy shots for them.”
Laney Holtzman was one of two Blue Comets to pace the squad with 18 points.
“Laney has the ability to go off any night,” Fox said. “It’s nice to have that off your bench. When she’s feeling it, she can light it up in a hurry. The girls do a good job of recognizing she’s hot and getting her the ball.”
Kate Uhner also dropped 18 for Chanute. “In the second half, Kate made some big plays for us and had some big finishes,” Fox said. “She kept attacking the rim and made plays for everybody else. We’re hard to figure out because we’ve had so many leading scorers. It’s hard to focus in on one kid.”
Robertson had 20 points for the Vikings while Hinman- Mitchell added 17.
Chanute improved to 9-5 overall and 3-3 in SEK League play while Parsons fell to 4-10 and 1-5, respectively.
Up next
Parsons heads to Frontenac on Tuesday.
“The kids gave us good effort,” Lyons said. “We had our benched rotations pushed down a little bit. They did the best they could. So now we have to learn and move on. Frontenac is a strong team and it’ll be a tough challenge at their place.”
Chanute also hits the road to take on Ottawa. “They’re good,” Fox said. “They’ll put some pressure on us and can really put the ball in the basket. We need to take care of the ball better and make sure we get shots every possession. We have to be locked in defensively and make it chaotic for them.”
