After tight 1st quarter, L-P surges past host Somonauk-Leland, 52-21

SOMONAUK – The opening week to any season for a basketball team, especially one that begins with playing four games in five days and limited – if any – practice time in between, is sometimes finding out truly what things will need more attention moving forward.

Both La Salle-Peru’s Adam Spencer and Somonauk-Leland’s Jason Zaleski said that was the case following the Cavaliers’ 52-21 win over the Bobcats on Friday at the Tim Humes Breakout Tournament.

“It’s early in the season, it’s a younger group, so I’m having to direct traffic as far as where we need to be on both ends of the floor,” Spencer said after his squad finished the week 2-2. “My hope is as the season moves along, some of the older, more experienced players start to be able to be coaches on the floor and recognize what we need to be in and where they need to be.

“We knew coming into this season and this week that there were going to be some things these games showed us we need to improve on. We saw those things and will begin work to get better in those areas.”

L-P opened the contest on a 10-2 run with Elizabeth Sines, Kelsey Frederick and Emma Jereb all scoring hoops and Alexus Hines and Brie Ruppert hitting a pair of free throws. The Bobcats’ Abby Hohmann then sparked the team with a steal turned layup and back-to-back 3-pointers from the top of the key to close the gap to 12-10 heading to the second.

“We came out trying to use a little full-court pressure to start the game, but [Somonauk-Leland] was able to get the ball to the middle of the floor and beat us a couple times for easy baskets,” Spencer said. “You could start to see our tired legs after three games this week, so from there, we just went half-court man-to-man and did a pretty good job with it the rest of the way.”

In the second, Sines netted five points and Frederick four points while the Cavs’ defense held the hosts to 0-of-4 shooting, forced eight turnovers and allowed just a Kiley Mason free throw to hold a 25-11 advantage at halftime.

“We’ve had a very hard time finding flow in our offense this week, and with four consecutive games against four pretty solid teams, we were making adjustments on the fly,” said Zaleski, his club falling to 0-4. “The first quarter tonight, we were able to score off beating the press, but when La Salle-Peru took the press off to a half-court defense, we struggled to run a consistent offense.

“We’ve talked all week about wanting to put pressure defensively on the ball and around the rim, but we didn’t really start doing that until late in the second half. After the first quarter, we just didn’t have our energy where it needed to be to keep matching what L-P was doing.”

The Bobcats used a pair of free tosses and offensive rebound basket by Macey Kinney to start the third quarter, but L-P closed out the period on a 10-0 run, Sines popping in five more and Ruppert three to make it 35-15 going to the fourth.

Sines finished with 12 points and five rebounds, Frederick with 11 points and three steals, Ruppert with nine points and five rebounds, and Himes six points and three rebounds.

Hohmann led S-L with eight points and three rebounds, while Kinney added six points and a pair of steals.

“This week showed us a lot – a lot of things that we need to work on before our next game and moving forward,” Zaleski said. “We had some good moments this week. The desire to improve and the desire to compete were there this week, which I knew it would be. Now my job is to take those two things and help the girls improve on the other aspects we need to be competitive.”

Somonauk-Leland is back in action Tuesday, when it hosts Putnam County. La Salle-Peru is off until Saturday, Nov. 30, when it is at Rock Falls.