Cyclones remain undefeated with first road win

Cyclone Junior Molly Swensen came away with 18 points leading the Cyclones to their 4th consecutive victory and first road win of the season over the Kuemper Catholic Knights, 56-41.
“I thought we got off to a good start for sure,” said Cyclone Head Coach Zach Klaassen. “We kind of came out of the gates right away. We hit a couple of early 3’s. Molly came out on fire right away and Hannah [Sonderman] hit one as well.”
The Cyclones outscored the Knights 16-9 in the first quarter, and took a 31-22 lead into halftime.
“We just talked about how we were up by 15 at one point and time in the first half, and then they got it down to two, and then we bumped it back up to nine,” Klaassen said. “The message at halftime was that we’ve got to get a few more inside touches. It’s okay to shoot the three, but maybe more than one pass, maybe let the ball go in and come back out so you’re squared up and it’s a better shot.”
Klaassen credited his defense as the Cyclones were able to hold the Knights to under 10 points in two of their four quarters, including holding the Knights to just two points in the third quarter.
“Our communication has really picked up from a year ago,” he said. “We just have a lot more people talking on the court that way everybody knows where everybody is at and knows where the help is at and understands it.”
The Knights offense struggled as their highest scorer was Junior Karsyn Overmohle with nine points, Senior Lauren Boell and Aubrey Hueton had eight and seven.
The Cyclones return home Friday night at 6 p.m. to battle Hawkeye Ten opponent Denison Monarchs, 2-3. The Monarchs are led by Senior Kiana Schulz with 55 points, averaging 11 points per game, with eight assists, and Junior Mayah Slater with 29 rebounds.
“We need to defend the home court obviously,” Klaassen said. “We need to make sure that we find Schulz. Last year, we lost her in the half court a couple of times. She kind of put a little run together on her own to get them back in the game. We’ve got to make sure we know where she’s at. She’s a deadly 3-point shooter, and continue to keep the turnovers down.”