The coaches have been harder on the Van-Far girls this season but told the girls to enjoy Tuesday’s win.

The Lady Indians defeated Eastern Missouri Conference and district foe Silex 43-35 at home to improve their overall record to 2-0 and conference record to 2-0, led by 24 points from Elliott Utterback. They haven’t played before Thanksgiving every season, but the Van-Far girls haven’t been undefeated going into the holiday since the 2010-11 season. 

Head coach Heather Minter said her players should enjoy the feeling of picking up two victories this early. Minter said the coaching staff has been stricter with the girls than the past two years, displaying more tough love because she believes more accountability is needed in this stage of their careers.

Van-Far vs Silex Photo Gallery

“Those kids have started since their freshman year,” Minter said. “They had success in junior year so people said they should be winning, but they are going up against older kids. We coddled them a lot the first two years, and we used the excuse we’re young. This year, we could be something special.”

Minter said there are some teams Van-Far might lose against, but she wants her team to be in more competitive situations. She admitted it wasn’t a great shooting night for the team, but Utterback caught fire yet again.

After scoring 29 points and hitting five 3-pointers in a 44-31 win against North Callaway in the Gary Filbert Classic on Saturday in Mexico, Utterback dropped 18 points in the second half and finished with eight rebounds and four 3-pointers to go with her floor-high in points. Kenya Jones followed with seven points and six rebounds, Khloe Wallace had seven points, and Chloe Zumwalt pulled down nine rebounds.

“A lot of people are doing their own job, and we are coming together and playing together,” Utterback said. “As we get older, I feel like we just learn what our role is.”

Utterback’s role has been shooting whenever she has a good look at the basket. She said her teammates helped her gain these opportunities and vice versa as other Lady Indians had open jumpers against the Silex defense.

“My teammates always push me and encourage me to keep shooting whenever I get down on myself,” Utterback said. “There’s a lot more open spots because we learned to adapt and set screens for each other.”

If Minter were to defend the Lady Indians, she said she would use the same strategy opponents are employing. Silex played stout defense on Zumwalt, sometimes sending a double team, especially in the first half. Minter said Utterback has to be a focus as well because she has the ability to shoot the ball like she has in these two games. 

“Her big thing last year was, if she didn’t make her first two shots, she would just quit shooting on us,” Minter said. “We would tell her, ‘If you don’t shoot the ball, you’re quitting on your teammates.’ It’s going to come.”

Silex has been an aggressive defensive team that has pressured opponents over the years. The Lady Owls were aggressive on Tuesday but to a fault. 

Morgan Kuntz led Silex with 11 points, five rebounds and five steals before she fouled out. Van-Far was ahead by two possessions with over a minute left when Kuntz fouled out, and Silex cut the margin to two points earlier in the fourth quarter. Minter said Silex produced points in transition, but Van-Far made it hard in the half court.

“We’re not a fast and streaky team,” Minter said. “We knew they would want to run too so we did the best we could with them.”

Van-Far hosts another district foe Sturgeon (1-1) at 6:30 p.m. Monday. Minter said she has been pleased with how Van-Far has been taking care of the basketball this season, finishing with only five turnovers against North Callaway.

“The big thing for us this year so far is turnovers,” Minter said. “We’re not giving people second chance opportunities.”