The Arlington High School girls basketball team fell short in its first game since going 21-5 last season.
It was a disappointing home showing against West Point-Beemer, but one the Eagles needed to get over in time for a Saturday afternoon contest on the road.
“Just try to pick them up. Pick up the pieces,” coach Tashia Wolf said of her coaching staff's objective between games. “And focus on Columbus Lakeview and playing our kind of ball.”
The Eagles started slow against the Viqueens, trailing 13-6 after one period, but, ultimately, held off the home team 43-39 for their first win of the new season. They next play 5 p.m. today at Yutan.
Against Lakeview, though, AHS overcame its early deficit with a 16-point second quarter. Senior Britt Nielsen scored five of her nine points during it, while Hayley Arp added a pair of buckets, too.
The Eagles then scored just five third-period points before, again, bouncing back with a big fourth. Point guard Emme Timm scored nine of her game-high 15 points in the final quarter, willing Arlington to victory.
Notably, Hadley Hornung led 0-2 Lakeview with 11 points in defeat. Abby Byrd tallied 10, too.
Cadets stun AHS in opener
Three is more than two.
West Point-Beemer knocked down nine 3-pointers Thursday to the Eagles' one, earning a 41-40 season-opening win at AHS. The Cadets scored just three fourth-quarter points, but Addison Toelle's free throw with 9.2 seconds left decided the game.
“We put a ton of pressure on ourselves to play well and it just wasn't our day,” Coach Wolf said. “There's a lot of things that we knew we had to do as keys to get a win tonight. We knew it was going to be a good, strong team and we just didn't do those things.”
Arlington trailed by one point at halftime, too, 24-23, but West Point's 5-0 run to end the second period continued into the third. The Cadets led by as many as 10 points in the quarter.
The Eagles battled back, however, with their own 10-0 run during the fourth. Timm and Nielsen combined to score all 10 points, pulling their squad even at 40-40 on Nielsen's free throws with a little more than a minute left to play.
“The girls fought at the end,” Coach Wolf said. “Really hard.”
It was an effort she would have preferred to have seen earlier on during the season-opening matchup.
“They gave that tenacity and drive we were looking for at the beginning of the game,” the coach said of the last few minutes of play. “But it took them 3.5 quarters to get to it.”
AHS used full-court pressure to stymie West Point during the fourth, but it was a strategy difficult to employ with the Eagles' current roster restrictions.
“It's hard because our bench is not that deep,” Wolf said. “So, it's hard to ask the girls to play a full game with full-court pressure.”
One-quarter's worth of aggressiveness proved not be enough against the Cadets, though. After Arlington's Macy Wolf missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer during the closing stretch, Toelle was fouled and sent to the free-throw line late. She missed her first attempt with 9.2 seconds left, but made the second to secure the lead and, seconds later, the victory.
Coach Wolf said the Eagles were disappointed, but committed to improving.
“We just need to grow that depth,” she said.
Timm led AHS in defeat with 18 points, while Nielsen had 15. Macy Wolf scored five points and Valeria Carvajal had two.
Campbell Snodgrass, meanwhile, scored 11 West Point points, sinking three of the Cadets' nine 3s. Wolf, notably, sank the Eagles' only long-range make during the second period.
AHS BASKETBALL LINE SCORES
Saturday
Arlington 43, Columbus Lakeview 39
AHS (1-1) 6 16 5 16 — 43
CL (0-2) 13 5 9 12 — 39
Scoring: AHS — Emme Timm 15, Britt Nielsen 9, Hayley Arp 7, Macy Wolf 6, Valeria Carvajal 4, Hailey O'Daniel 2.
CL — Hadley Hornung 11, Abby Byrd 10, Kenzie Greisen 8, Calli Helms 4, Genesis Enriquez 3, Izzy Runge 2, Brianne Line 1.
Thursday
West Point-Beemer 41, Arlington 40
WPB (1-0) 9 15 14 3 — 41
AHS (0-1) 8 15 7 10 — 40
Scoring: AHS — Timm 18, Nielsen 15, Wolf 5, Carvajal 2.
WPB — Campbell Snodgrass 11, Addison Toelle 7, Kenna Hughes 7, Nevaeh Weborg 6, Allie Kaup 5, Jadyn Doggett 3, Mia Hunke 2.
