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Game Summaries & Headlines.

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7.0 years ago @ 8:08AM

Calhoun rolls past Lady Redbirds Hoops - TheTelegraph - 11/16/2016

PREP GIRLS BASKETBALL: Calhoun rolls past Redbirds, 58-25

 

‘New’ Calhoun still has winning touch, dumps AHS

By Greg Shashack - gshashack@thetelegraph.com

 


Calhoun’s Grace Baalman, left, puts up a shot as Alton’s Allurah Bowens attempts a block during Wednesday night’s game played at Alton High.

 

Billy Hurst | For The Telegraph

GODFREY — The newest edition of Calhoun Warriors girls basketball has a significantly different look from the squad that won a Class 1A state championship last February.

But the result Wednesday night was strikingly familiar.

The Warriors blitzed Alton with a 23-0 run over the game’s opening six minutes and finished off the Redbirds 58-25 at the Alton Tip-Off Classic at Alton High.

Calhoun, which rallied to beat Cahokia 50-48 on Monday, goes to 2-0 and advances to the championship game on Saturday night. It was the season opener for Alton, which closes pool play against Cahokia on Friday night.

Grace Baalman, a 6-foot-2 senior and lone returner from the top six players on last season’s 32-2 state champs, scored 19 points for Calhoun, the tourney’s defending champion.

“In the first quarter there, it’s really not a possession unless Grace touches the ball,” coach Aaron Baalman said. “And the girls did a good job finding Grace inside.”

A three-time Associated Press all-stater and last season’s Tip-Off Classic MVP, Grace Baalman scored all of her points on 9 of 9 shooting from the field in the first half. She played less than 16 minutes in the rout, but did major damage early.

“When you’ve got a girl like Baalman in the middle that’s got her size, and we’ve got an inexperienced person starting in the post, we knew it was going to be tough,” Alton coach Bob Rickman said. “We knew she was going to be where they tried to get the ball and we just didn’t do the things to stop her. She got rolling in the first quarter.”

Junie Zirkelbach scored 18 points and Sophie Lorton came off the bench to chip in 11 points for the Warriors. Calhoun led 36-7 before settling for a 38-14 halftime lead. Alton got 12 points from freshman Rayn Tally and six from senior Kenya Burnett.

“We’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Rickman said. “We’ve got a really young team that’s inexperienced. They’re going to grow up quick. … It was encouraging to see, after the first quarter, how they kind of rebounded from the tough start, got in there and played a little harder.”

Springfield Lanphier 60, Jersey 48 – The Jersey Panthers opened their season with a Tip-Off defeat to the Lions. Bethany Muenstermann rained in seven 3-pointers and scored 22 points to lead Jersey. Mackenzie added 16 points for the Panthers.

Jersey was encouraged by a 24-24 halftime tie “because I felt like we had played a really poor half,” Panthers coach Kevin Strebel said.

The Panthers were not so fortunate after the break. Lanphier hit Jersey with an 18-2 run to open the third quarter and the Panthers were undone by many of their 25 turnovers..

“The third quarter really got us,” Strebel said. “Not a lot of it was that they were running superior half-court offense or anything. It was us handing them the ball with an easy path to the basket.”

Lanphier is 1-1. Jersey plays Breese Mater Dei (1-0) on Friday.

Greg Shashack may be reached at 618-798-1486 or on Twitter @gregshashack


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