It was just another day at the office for the Waubonsie Valley girls Saturday afternoon as the host Warriors easily walloped Lake Park 61-32 to remain unbeaten in the Upstate Eight.
The No. 19 Warriors (18-4, 10-0) scored 16 straight points in the first quarter to open a 20-2 lead and coasted the rest of the way. The Warriors forced eight turnovers in the first quarter and held Lake Park (9-14, 4-6) to just two field goals on nine shot attempts and led 20-5 after the first eight minutes.
“I’m pleased with the way my starters came out,” said Warrior coach Julie Callan. “That’s fun and that’s really good when we can do something like that.
“But then it becomes a dilemma with how hard are you pushing here and when do you start going to the bench. That makes it real difficult coaching because we’re trying to allow the top six, seven or eight kids to see a lot of time and it’s hard to do that when we’re in a situation like this.”
Ashley Luke led the Warriors with 22 points, 17 in the first half. The 5-foot-6-inch junior had five three-pointers for the game and hit two to key the 16-point, first-quarter run. Luke had a somewhat subpar shooting day, connecting on only 7-of-23 shots, 5-of-16 from beyond the arc. But she also had six assists, a statistic that brought a smile to Callan’s face.
“I thought Ashley had a nice game,” said Callan. “It was kind of a quiet 22 points.”
Early in the second quarter Luke hit a three-pointer from so far out that her brother, R.J., sitting in the bleachers, had to cover his face and laugh. The trey gave the Warriors a 26-5 lead with 6 minutes 13 seconds left before half.
But Callan substituted liberally and the Warriors only outscored Lake Park 15-13 in the second quarter to take a 35-18 lead to the locker room at halftime.
“I’m not real concerned with how that went,” said Callan. “I don’t think we struggled, but it was just a matter that we lost continuity while we rotated kids in.”
The Warriors used the second half to try out some variations of their offense.
“We always have to put in a couple new wrinkles,” said Callan. “I think we confused our kids more than the other team sometimes, but we’re starting to put those things in and the kids get excited when people are used to a certain thing from us and we throw something just a little bit different at them and it works.”
Leslie Davenport and Stacey Byrd had 10 points apiece, and Davenport pulled down 10 rebounds. Sophomore Shauna Daugherty added seven points for the Warriors.
