It is starting to become a habit.

Community R-6 vs Slater Photo Gallery

For the fourth straight game and sixth time this season, the Community R-6 girls held an opponent under 30 points, defeating Central Activities Conference foe Slater 59-28 on Friday night at home. This defensive run has resulted in a four-game winning streak for the Lady Trojans.

Community (7-2, 2-0 CAC) was on its game early as it had a 22-5 lead over Slater (1-5, 0-1 CAC) after one quarter. The Lady Trojans attempted 22 free throws in the first half and finished 20-for-32 at the line. Head coach Bob Curtis said the girls are having fun stalling offenses this season and was pleased that the Lady Trojans scored over 50 points for the second straight and overall game this season.

“Our pressure defense led to layups and really got us a lead,” Curtis said. “We trapped really well tonight. We always talk about takers. When we trap well, the kids that are not in the trap, are they really trying to shoot a gap, get a steal and go for a layup? That happened a lot tonight.”

Aaliyah Welch led Community with 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists, and was 6-for-9 on free throws. Kat Meyer had 12 points and was 4-for-6 on free throws and Jocelyn Curtis had nine points, six rebounds and was 3-for-6 on free throws.

Welch had three steals on the defensive end in an effort that was led by Peyton Beamer’s seven steals. Several other Lady Trojans had at least one steal as Slater was out of sync offensively much of the night.

“We have a lot of communication going on that people probably don’t hear or see as much because it’s behind-the-scenes,” Welch said. “That helps a lot because we’re always letting each other know where people are and where their best players are. It’s been a lot of fun keeping teams under 30 points because you don’t do that a lot.”

Welch said “certain words” or names are used on the floor to make sure all five Lady Trojans are aware of the locations and actions of opposing players. She said they usually know how to act from there.

Curtis has said Community does its homework and knows which player to contain on defense. This time, it was reigning all-conference player Madison Prysock, who finished with 15 points and only had six points in the first half. 

“In transition, we’re just trying to build, getting back to the lane and trying to make them take contested jumpers instead of getting layups,” Curtis said. “We’re doing a pretty good job of that.”

Welch and Curtis made regular trips to the free throw line in the first half to give Community a big early advantage. Community executed some interior passes to some of their best options or found them after making cuts to the rim.

“We’ve been working on becoming a better free-throw shooting team because we get to the line so much,” Curtis said. “We got a little tired in the second half and missed some, but in the first half, we did a pretty nice job at the foul line.”

Community’s reigning all-conference player and this year’s leading scorer Beamer finished with eight points and two 3-pointers. In the second half, especially, Beamer took time on the bench to leave the Lady Trojans without their primary ball handler. Curtis said this was because Beamer jammed some fingers in the previous win at Madison so it was a precautionary measure. 

Still, Welch did well as the focal point as she scored eight points in the third quarter and found other teammates scoring opportunities. While she said she has played as a guard more this year, Welch operated out of the post to keep the offense churning.

“Sometimes, we’ll run the same things, so every time, you don’t want to make the same move or go the same direction because they’ll catch on to it,” Welch said about playing from the post. “You always try to throw people off. I play guard right now but used to be a post, so I try to hit the post when I’m in the game.”

“We really passed the ball well. I thought the second group off the bench passed the ball well,” Curtis said. “We got a lot of interior buckets from 10 feet right in the lane.”

Community R-6 plays in the New Franklin tournament starting Jan. 6.