By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School girls basketball team’s offensive output is increasing. Hopefully wins will soon follow.
The Elks drew closer to cracking the 50-point barrier for points scored in a game in recent losses to Southern Lakes Conference foes Delavan-Darien and Westosha Central.
Elkhorn lost 62-43 to Delavan-Darien Jan. 6 at home and lost 60-40 Jan. 5 to Westosha Central at Paddock Lake.
The Elks (0-12, 0-6 SLC) play a SLC game Friday at Union Grove (9-3, 5-1 SLC), and play a non-conference game Monday at Edgerton (6-4).
“Offensively, we are getting closer to that 50-point total, which is the number a team needs to start winning a few games,” Elks coach Todd Frohwirth said. “Megan Skoczylas has been really attacking the basket better. Olivia May is now becoming an offensive threat and will continue that path.”
The 43 points scored against the Comets is the Elks’ season high. The Comets (5-5, 3-2 SLC) led the Elks 27-25 at halftime, which is the Elks closest margin at halftime so far this season.
Delavan-Darien outscored the Elks 35-18 in the second half.
May grabbed 14 rebounds against the Comets. Skoczylas led the Elks with 10 points. Jessica Barrett added nine.
The Elks experienced a similar second-half scoring drought against Westosha (2-10, 2-3 SLC).
Elkhorn trailed the Falcons 32-27 at halftime. Westosha outscored the Elks 28-13 in the second half after altering their defense.
“We modified our 1-3-1 in order to prevent ball movement,” Westosha coach Jerod Boyd said. “It was a simple switch, but it prevented them from swinging the ball and forced them to make bad passes.”
May and Alex Trombley led the Elks with eight points each.
The Elks will have played every SLC team once after the game versus Union Grove. The team is showing improvement.
“As a team, we’re slowly turning the ball over less often,” Frohwirth said. “It was 30 turnovers a game early. Now it’s down to 20 or so. We need to bring that number down to nine per game to start winning as well.”
The Elks are scoring more, but their team defense needs to show improvement before the zero in the win column budges.
“Defensively, our individual technique improves daily, but we need to play better team defense and rotate to the ball faster,” Frohwirth said. “We still give up 60 points in games. We’re hoping that improves to 50 and under in the coming weeks.”
Frohwirth said Trombley and May are effective defensive rebounders when the Elks do force a missed shot.
