By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
The visiting Evansville girls basketball team had its sights set on a major upset when it visited East Troy Friday night.
And for one quarter, the Blue Devils were on that pace, as they held a one-point lead after the opening eight minutes.
From there, however, East Troy pushed the tempo – and that’s all the Trojans needed to get back on track.
East Troy outscored Evansville 47-15 in the middle two quarters to overcome an early 16-15 deficit in a 73-42 Rock Valley Conference victory.
The win improved the Trojans, ranked second in Division 3 by wissports.net, to 14-0 overall and 10-0 in the RVC. East Troy was back in action at Southern Lakes Conference foe Waterford Tuesday night.
Results of that non-conference contest were unavailable by press time.
East Troy coach Jeff Brown said he knows his team may have avoided potential disaster after its slow first quarter.
“We didn’t come out very sharp offensively,” he said. “We had eight turnovers in the (first) quarter. They got us on about three back-door cuts as well.”
The Trojans turned to their strength in the second quarter, as their defense led to offense in a 22-5 scoring burst.
East Troy led 37-21 at halftime, and then added a 25-10 third quarter to put the game out of reach.
“The pace of the game picked up,” Brown said. “Alicia (Oleson) dominated the two quarters. We put a lot of pressure on the ball to stop them from making the passes that they wanted.”
Oleson continued to put together big statistical efforts to lead the Trojans, as she scored a game-high 20 points, along with five rebounds and five assists.
“Rachel (Atchison) and Breanna (Gaspervich) get a lot of the credit, but Alicia has been nothing short of awesome the past few games,” Brown said. “Her unselfishness is a key to our success.”
Atchison added 16 points and five rebounds, followed by Gaspervich with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Frankie Morris grabbed five rebounds, while Andrea Olsen had five steals.
Brown said he was pleased to see his team fight through the first-quarter struggles against Evansville.
“(Having to face) adversity is OK,” he said. “It was good to have to adjust to something they were doing.”
Following Tuesday’s game with Waterford, East Troy will be back in RVC action Thursday night at Beloit Turner. The Trojans entered play this week at 5-7 overall and 4-6 in conference play.
As the calendar nears February, the games will become more important and the opponents will get tougher – two facts that keep East Troy focused on its ultimate goal, Brown said.
“We talk all the time about the opportunity to get better,” he said. “We only have so many opportunities to get better. If we waste them we will not get to our best basketball.
“Our goal is our best basketball. Seniors don’t need a lot of motivation. Losing at state, (and) getting (back) to state is plenty of motivation.”
Trojans roll past Falcons
East Troy led 25-11 after the first quarter and 52-16 at halftime in a 90-36 non-conference win Jan. 21 over visiting Westosha Central.
Gaspervich had 26 points to lead the way, followed by Atchison with 20 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Olsen added 11 points and five steals, while Katrina Santos had 10 points and Oleson had seven rebounds and 11 assists.
