Girls basketball: Indian Creek in the zone during 48-20 win over Hiawatha

Indian Creek's Alexa Anderson and Hiawatha's Olivea Rotstein fight for a loose ball during their game Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, at Hiawatha High School in Kirkland.

KIRKLAND – Not only was the Hiawatha girls basketball team giving Indian Creek too many second chances, coach Jason Haack said Thursday, but third and fourth chances as well.

The Timberwolves crashed the boards, then scored 26 straight points between the second and third quarters for a 48-20 win over the Hawks in a Little 10 Conference game.

“It’s the second, third, fourth chances we give them on the offense,” Haack said. “If you give any team that, they’re going to have positive results off that. It’s taking away those second, third, fourth chances. If we do that and hit a few buckets here and there the game might be a little closer than what it was.”

The Timberwolves (14-11, 4-2) finished with a 60-17 edge on the boards and grabbed 27 offensive rebounds. They had 21 second-chance points, including Audrey Witte getting 10 of her game-high 14 points from offensive rebounds.

She also had a game-best 12 boards.

“They have to put themselves in a better position, react to when the shot goes off,” Haack said. “If they lean that up they’ll be OK.”

The Timberwolves scored the first nine points, but Calli Schell and Crystal Haack connected on 3s late for the Hawks (1-14, 0-8) to get within 9-6 after the first quarter.

But the Timberwolves started making their shots and scored the next 26 points, a run broken by a Schell 3-pointer with 2:49 left in the third.

Indian Creek reached the running clock 10 seconds into the fourth on a pair of free throws by point guard Jolee Larsen. While those were her only points, she also had seven rebounds, second on the team behind Witte.

“We were hustling and boxing out, and that helps us get a lot of rebounds,” Larson said. “A lot of us are under 5-6, so that helped us a lot.”

Isabella Turner scored 11 points for the Timberwolves, grabbed three steals and was one of three IC players with six rebounds, along with Alexa Anderson and Emma Wilson.

Indian Creek coach Paul Muchmore said rebounding has been a weakness at times for the Timberwolves, in part because of their height. In fact, Muchmore was trying out a zone defense for the first time Thursday as a possible remedy to height mismatches as the season rolls on.

“The zone is what a zone is,” Muchmore said. “I don’t like to run them. I don’t have anything against them, but I’m just doing it to see when we get a mismatch with size and stuff like that. We had a couple games where we struggled size-wise against other teams. So we were just looking at it. I thought the girls moved well in it for the first time in a game.”

Larson said she was pleased with how the zone worked out.

“We never really played a zone before, but I think we did a really good job,” Larson said. “We did a good job talking and making sure we knew where the other team was on the court. And I think we did a good job hustling and blocking shots.”

Schell led the Hawks with nine points and three steals, while Brooklyn Rylko had seven rebounds.

“For the most part, I think these girls worked their tails off,” Jason Haack said. “It’s just a few things here and there we could fix to make this game a little closer than what it showed at the end. But overall I’m pleased with how they played. They always leave 100% on the court, and I can’t ask for anything else.”

Have a Question about this Daily Chronicle article?