Monday was not the first time the Community R-6 girls played a tight game.

Community R-6 vs Silex Photo Gallery

The Lady Trojans’ 30-25 win against Silex at home was their fourth game decided by five points or less and also fourth game this season Community’s defense held a team to below 30 points. Community outscored Silex 15-7 in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Bob Curtis said both teams were ready for each other after playing each other in the preseason jamboree. Because of that, Community (5-2) only led 11-10 at halftime and didn’t see a spike in offense until the fourth quarter. Thankfully, he said the Lady Trojan defense held Silex (2-1) long enough to take the game at the end.

“Defensively, we’ve gotten better since the jamboree,” Curtis said. “We have been playing games more in the 20s and 30s and getting wins out of it. I’m just excited that our kids are guarding and hopefully the offense will come in the coming months.”

Leading scorer and point guard Peyton Beamer finished with eight points but recorded five steals. She and the other Lady Trojans appeared often in Silex’s passing lanes and didn’t allow any 3-pointers until the Lady Owls’ three in the second half. 

Curtis said Community playing good defense like it has depends on how well-prepared the team is for the opponent. The Lady Trojans under Curtis seem to be adept at taking away the opponents’ best player or players as he said is the case with Silex. 

It was a matter of 1-2-3 — the respective numbers of Austyn Van Horn, Morgan Kuntz and Kenzee James. Van Horn fouled out after finishing with four points and eight rebounds, Kuntz had five points in the second half to go with seven rebounds and James was the leading scorer with 10 points but had four in the first half. 

“We’ve scouted quite a bit hard here,” Curtis said. “We’ve got some film in the first couple weeks of the season so we can key on their best offensive players. We’re doing a nice job of checking on and making it hard for their best offensive kids to get loose.”

Curtis added Community’s tendency to pull down defensive rebounds helps in the defense in a big way. Chloe Johnson finished with 11 rebounds, and Aaliyah Welch and Jocelyn Curtis are post players that give the Lady Trojans some size on the boards. Welch finished with 10 points and Curtis added four points.

Welch and Curtis also served as examples for Community’s better free-throw shooting, which was a big difference in the game. Through three quarters, the Lady Trojans were 2-for-13 from the line but went 8-for-9 on foul shots in the fourth quarter. Welch missed all three of her free throws before the fourth quarter but knocked both down after, and Curtis missed all four before but drained two after.

“If we are going to be good at the line, the fourth quarter was the one,” Curtis said. “No doubt, that’s the quarter you want to be big at the line.”

Kat Meyer hit two free throws in the fourth quarter to increase the Community lead to 26-23 in the final minute. When the game was tied at 21 earlier in the quarter, Meyer nailed a 3-pointer to give the Lady Trojans their second make from the perimeter.

After not scoring any points in the first three quarters, Meyer seemed to turn on a switch in the fourth quarter as well by scoring all seven of her points then. Meyer even put back a miss for a key bucket down the stretch, impressing Curtis.

“She hit a big three to put us up three late,” Curtis said. “That was really a big shot because we had two and a half minutes to go and that gave us an option to really make them get us to the foul line. With three minutes to go, you’ve got to have a lead.”

After losing 64-24 to Silex a season ago, Community felt good about the victory that made the team 4-0 against the Eastern Missouri Conference this season. Curtis said this season’s Owls provided a challenge, judging by their victory over Class 5 Warrenton and rising program North Callaway.

“Not very often do you score 30 points and win,” Curtis said. “If your defensive effort is there, you always have a chance to win even if you don’t have a great offensive night.”