By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
At first glance, it appears little went right for the East Troy High School girls basketball team Friday night in its season opener at Delavan-Darien.
But a closer look shows young Trojans’ squad wasn’t that far away from a non-conference victory.
The two teams battled nearly even for three quarters, but the Comets had just enough in the end to post a 35-33 victory. The loss dropped East Troy to 0-1 overall.
“I would say the last minute, they executed better than us,” East Troy coach Jeff Brown said. “We missed a couple free throws in the last minute and they made two baskets.”
Shooting, both from the free-throw line and the field, was a difficulty all night for East Troy.
The Trojans were 11 for 19 from the free-throw line and just nine of 44 from the field – two areas that need to improve, Brown said.
“We just didn’t shoot well,” he said. “I thought we actually played well, but we didn’t shoot well. We didn’t play all that bad. It looks worse than maybe it is.”
East Troy led 6-5 after the first period and 17-16 at halftime. The Comets enjoyed a three-point advantage in the third quarter, which turned out to be the difference, as both teas put 12 points on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.
Three girls had eight points to lead the Trojans – Maddie Rosin, Katrina Santos and Kayla Casper.
Casper added a team-high 10 rebounds, while Santos had nine rebounds and three blocks and Rosin five rebounds.
Casper scored all eight of her points from the free-throw line in the second half.
“She had some real big ones in the fourth quarter,” Brown said.
Being at or near the leader in rebounding will be a big role for Casper this year, Brown said, and after just one game, she seems to have taken to that responsibility just fine.
“We expect her and (Santos) to get most of the rebounds,” he said. “She did a nice job fighting for position. She’s only a sophomore, so there’s a lot of positives there if we can keep her aggressive.”
The game also gave several Trojans a little on-the-job-training, as many either had a limited varsity role a year ago or made their debut against the Comets.
It’s all about trusting the process, gaining experience and getting better, Brown said.
“There were a lot of kids, whose eyes were maybe wide (at the experience),” he said. “Maybe they were on varsity (last year), but now maybe they have a little more of a prominent role. Everything is a little quicker and a little more physical.”
Conference schedule begins
East Troy hosted McFarland Tuesday in its Rock Valley Conference opener and travels to Jefferson next Tuesday, Dec. 2.
Both games will provide a challenge – but again, just another step in the learning process for the Trojans, Brown said.
“McFarland has a lot of young kids playing for them, too, but they have a couple real nice players,” he said.
“Jefferson is always well-coached. They’re going to play man (defense), and that’s all they’re going to play. … They will be tough. They have a lot of experience coming back and played a lot of sophomores last year on varsity.”
