Community R-6 girls earn trips to line, defeat Mark Twain 60-44

The Community R-6 girls had their fill of free throws on Friday night.

Community R-6 girls, boys vs Mark Twain Photo Gallery

The Lady Trojans persistent pursuit of points inside earned them 38 free throws, hitting 20 of them, to defeat Mark Twain 60-44 on Friday night at home. A combined 64 free throws were awarded — with Mark Twain going 14-for-26 at the line — and four Community girls scored in double figures.

Head coach Bob Curtis said Community (2-2) had been struggling on offense the previous two games so he and the girls wanted more scoring opportunities this time. The Lady Trojans finished with 24 points scored in the paint.

"We really attack the rim, and we want to get to the free-throw line," Curtis said. "We want to win on the offensive and defensive glass, and if we do that, we're going to shoot a lot of free throws. There's going to be a lot of games where we shoot a lot of free throws and we have to be really solid at the line because that's where a lot of our points are going to come from."

The Lady Trojans had a 16-12 lead after the first quarter but eventually widened to 35-26 at halftime and then 45-30 after the third quarter as they found more ways to get to the rim. Kylie Brooks led with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, Peyton Beamer had 12 points, five rebounds and two 3-pointers, Brooklynn Glasgow finished with 10 points, five rebounds and an 8-for-11 clip on free throws, and Alyssa Beamer had 10 points. Taylor Martin led Mark Twain (1-2) with 14 points.

Curtis said Community is a better shooting team than it has shown so far, but to prevent more losing in the near future, his girls needed to be closer to the rim. The results from outside were there since the Lady Trojans hit three 3-pointers, including a half-court heave by Peyton Beamer to end the first half.

“If you want the pain to go away, you’re going to have to try something different, and we did,” Curtis said. “We started hitting some perimeter shots because we took it to the hole, got some and-ones, got some free throws and relaxed when we got the lead.”

Brooks said a main part of her game is rebounds and putbacks, which were plenty from her against Mark Twain. She said they are able to find open lanes and open spots near the rim.

“We have a lot of plays that leave open spots in the middle so it’s easy to drive and find an open spot toward the basket,” Brooks said.

The driving to the rim is familiar to Brooks, but she said the amount of free throws shot in the game was irregular. She doesn’t recall ever playing in a game with that many free throws, but she said the Lady Trojans are prepared to take their shots.

"Free throws are a thing we do have to work on in practice and outside of practice too," Brooks said. "It can make our score a lot higher if we do start making our free throws."

Brooks complimented the fearless nature of teammates like Glasgow and Alyssa Beamer as they are never afraid to go to the rim through contact. She said they each work on their free throws outside of practice.

From the end of the first quarter to the middle of the second quarter, Community went on a 14-2 run that was capped by a Glasgow 3-point play in transition and a 22-16 lead for the Lady Trojans. Beamer helped Community take a 16-point lead in the third quarter after zipping to the rim for a layup and a foul and then making a move in the lane for another close-range bucket.

Curtis said another reason for Community’s growing lead was the defense that tired the Lady Tigers. In the third quarter, Community outscored Mark Twain 10-4 after some defensive work earlier in the game.

“We like to come get you full court,” Curtis said. “For 16 minutes, we really made them sprint so conditioning comes in. We hope that our opponent can’t have as many in the second half as they did in the first half.”

Community R-6 boys let loose of ball, lose 66-43 to Mark Twain

The pace was fast for the Community R-6 boys’ home game on Friday night.

It was a long night for the Trojans, however, as they lost 66-43 to Mark Twain after committing 32 turnovers and letting the Tigers take away 25 steals. 

Head coach Kody Asquith, who graduated and coached at Mark Twain, said the turnovers change the complexion of the game. Instead of Community (1-3) falling behind 36-19 at halftime and at its biggest deficit of 55-28 after the third quarter, the game could have been closer if the Trojans didn’t give the athletic Tigers (1-3) more chances.

"We can't do that," Asquith said. "Say we get half of (the 32 turnovers) back and say we score half of the points, it's not a 20-point game but a four-point game. It was the pace of the game. They set the tone for the game, and we never took a step back and tried to slow the game down."

Community would secure a defensive rebound or a steal of its own but couldn’t turn those opportunities into points because of the additional chances given to the Tigers. The Trojans had a better offensive showing than their previous output of 24 points, led by Mason Carroll and his 22 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks. 

“He worked his tail off tonight, even down low,” Asquith said. “He went to the boards a lot, and he took quite a few shots outside. Defensively, he was one of the ones that controlled it.”

Other than Carroll, Caden Thomas added 11 points, six rebounds and three steals. Nine of those points were scored in the second half, including two 3-pointers. Thomas is still a freshman that has “freshman jitters,” but Asquith likes what he has seen so far from him.

“It comes with being a freshman point guard,” Asquith said. “He got sped up a bit, but we can work on that and try to get him slowed down. He can definitely drive and handle the ball well.”

Mark Twain had some standout players of its own, especially state cross country qualifier Sam Northcutt. He finished with a game-high 26 points followed by 16 points from Quin Eckler, who was 7-for-14 from the free-throw line, and 11 points from Aydan Dye, who was 9-for-12 from the line.

Northcutt had 20 of those points in the first half because he consistently galloped down the floor to catch an awaiting pass for an easy layup and crashed the offensive glass to help the Tigers have more second-chance scoring opportunities than the Trojans.

“He’s one we try to not let get the ball because he can dribble, he can shoot, he can drive, he is aggressive all-around, he plays solid defense, and he moves well offensively and defensively,” Asquith said. “When we shoot the ball, we need four guys crashing the paint and try to get the boards.”

Brant Cope added eight rebounds for Community, and Clayton Eikel and Lane Carter were a couple of the younger Trojans that contributed some. Eikel finished with six points and four rebounds and Carter had three rebounds and two steals. Asquith said his young players could benefit from not trying to be too quick.

“We saw spurts where we slowed down, moved the ball around and got some looks inside,” Asquith said. “It really wasn’t there tonight.”

Lady Trojans see end goal in 63-23 loss at Silex

The Community girls are far from  the team they want to be in February.

They saw that on Monday night with a 63-23 loss at Silex, trailing 34-11 at halftime.

Head coach Bob Curtis said Silex (2-2) was the "best team we have seen so far this season" and a team that resembles what Community (2-3) wants to be at the end of the season.

"They are very quick and score it inside and out," Curtis said. "Handling pressure, getting into our offense and transition defense are key points for our success going forward."

Brooklynn Glasgow led the Lady Trojans with seven points followed by five girls with three points each.

Community hosted Central Activities Conference foe Madison (0-4, 0-1 CAC) on Tuesday night for its conference opener before playing at CAC foe Slater (1-2) at 6 p.m. Friday.

Trojans do too much in 57-37 loss at Silex

The Community R-6 boys tried to make things happen on Monday.

The Trojans were down 28-24 at halftime at Silex (1-2), but turnovers led to a 57-37 loss.

"We came out in the third and tried to do a little too much with the ball, which led to quite a few turnovers and we could never really recover in the second half," head coach Kody Asquith said.

Mason Carroll led Community (1-4) with 20 points with a "majority" of those points coming from attacking the rim to earn trips to the free-throw line, Asquith said.

The Trojans opened their Central Activities Conference schedule on Tuesday at home against Madison (0-3, 0-1 CAC) before playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday at CAC foe Slater (2-4).