Mason City trounces GHV in pre-season scrimmage

(Above) GHV’s Maddie Williams brings the ball down the floor against a tough Mason City defense during Tuesday night’s scrimmage in Mason City. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura girls basketball team opened the 2016 season with a scrimmage against Mason City on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

“We can use this scrimmage to find out the things that we need to work on,” said Coach Matt Erpelding.  “Without a doubt, the area of our game that needs immediate attention is our defense.”

The Cards came out early and put in two points, but failed to score again for over six minutes.  The first quarter ended with the Mohawks gaining a 13-6 lead.

Mason City started to pull away in the second half and went up 28-11 before the Cardinals picked it up a bit and closed the deficit to within 12 by halftime, 33-21.

The second half was all Mason City, as they outscored the Cardinals 40-14 for the final score of 73-35.

“Mason City adjusted how they were defending some of our man-to-man action and we didn’t respond well, as we made numerous poor decisions with the basketball,” said Erpelding.  “We struggled all night guarding their perimeter shooters.”

A highlight of the game was GHV’s rebounding.  The Cardinals grabbed 40 rebounds to the Mohawks’ 37.

Hannah Lau and Jillian Heitland led the offense with eight and seven points respectively.  Sadie Oulman added five and Alison Johnson put in four points.

Lau led the charge under the basket with 16 total rebounds.  Oulman grabbed six and Kayla Leerar had three.

Lau also led in assists with three.

Grabbing two steals apiece were Maddie Williams and Mara Anderson.  Jade Hanson contributed two blocked shots. Jenna Hanson and Mara Anderson had one blocked shot apiece.

The Cardinals host Charles City on Monday, Nov. 28, and the host North Iowa on Tuesday, Nov. 29.  The  JV team takes the floor at 6:15 p.m. and the varsity at 7:30 p.m.