Henry-Senachwine shuts down FCW to claim title at Earlville Christmas Tournament

The Henry-Senachwine girls basketball team shut down FCW 43-27 Saturday for the championship of the Earlville Christmas Tournament. — EARLVILLE – Both teams competing in Saturday afternoon’s championship game – and Henry-Senachwine - entered the Earlville Christmas Tournament with just three victories, but made it to the title game by playing their best basketball of the season.

The Mallards kept that good thing going all the way to taking the title, shutting down FCW 43-27.

“These girls are just getting used to playing good competition, and we’re making sure they’re playing our game all the time,” first-season Henry-Senachwine head coach Clinton Schlosser said. “In the past, they sometimes lost focus during their games, but they’re starting to do a really good job.

“Hopefully we can build on this and start getting some conference wins down the road here.”

Senior forward Kaitlyn Anderson was the star on both ends of the floor, leading Henry-Senachwine (6-10) with a 16-point, 11-rebound, seven-steal, two-block performance against the Falcons (5-9).

“We’ve been losing a lot of close games, but it’s definitely been a change of culture in our program this year,” Anderson said. “We aren’t used to having winning seasons, and we have a new coaching staff that believes in us and wants to change that. We just had to tap in and really focus in during closer games and take advantage.

“This tournament was a good refresh for us.”

Lauren Harbison (nine points, six steals, three assists), Brynna Anderson (seven points, three steals) and Harper Schrock (seven points, 10 rebounds) also led a Mallards squad that outscored FCW in every quarter and finished winning the rebounding battle 36-29 and – most relevant to the final result – the turnovers forced statistic 23-13.

With noticeable advantages in height and length, Henry-Senachwine feasted on intercepting quicker FCW’s high-risk, high-reward across-the-lane passes for five-plus turnovers in every quarter. The resulting fewer offensive opportunities for the Falcons limited FCW to single-digit scoring in every period and held tournament leading scorer Ella Derossett - who poured in 41 in Friday’s semifinals – scoreless the entirety of the first half.

“Our game plan was to make sure [Derossett and secondary scorer Emma Palaschak] didn’t get left open for 3-point shots and make sure the ball didn’t get in the middle,” Schlosser said of his zone defense. “We pretty much did that for the most part.

“This team is pretty much predicated on defense first.”

Despite never truly finding her shooting touch, Derossett finished with a team-high 11 points to go with four steals. Palaschak put in 10 points and six rebounds, with Ava Price adding six steals to her two points.

It wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with a steady if not explosive Henry-Senachwine attack. The Mallards led 15-7 after one quarter, 23-13 at the half and 31-19 heading into the final quarter.

“We knew we were going to have our hands full with [Henry-Senachwine],” FCW coach Danielle Pollitt said, “because: 1) They outsize us; and 2) Everybody is looking to stop Ella after what she did earlier this week. When she doesn’t score and we don’t have anyone else picking it up, it‘s tough. ...

“Obviously some things we need to work on, but like I just told the girls, they have to believe in themselves, and this [tournament] was good for us going into the second part of the season and the tough conference that we play in. We can play with anyone.”

FCW’s Derossett and Palaschak along with Henry-Senachwine’s Anderson and Harbison were selected as all-tournament.