Cyclones fall to Saintes on the road, 71-58

Tuesday, the HCHS Cyclones girls basketball team was hoping to get their first win, but fell to the St. Albert Saintes 71-58 for their second loss of the season.

“I think we have one huge struggle and it’s turnovers,” said Cyclone Head Coach Zach Klaassen. “The good news is we think it’s fixable. We’re going to get serious about working on it. If we clean those up, we have a chance to win ballgames.”

The Cyclones got off to a slow start offensively trailing 21-9 at the end of the first quarter, but got more shots to fall in the second quarter scoring 20 points, yet still trailed 37-29 at halftime.

Cyclones Senior Grace Albertsen led the way in scoring with 18 points, followed by Senior Aubrey Schwieso with 17, and Kenzley Bruck with 12 points. Albertsen led with 13 rebounds, while Schwieso had six assists.

“When we got in the half court, we didn’t turn it over on press,” Klaassen said. “We functioned pretty well. We were going pretty good there for a while. We had a big second quarter. The first half of the third quarter was pretty good cutting the lead down to two, and it sat there for a while.”

The Cyclones trailed 53-46 at the end of the third quarter, but unfortunately couldn’t overcome the Saintes offense in the fourth quarter getting outscored 18-12, for their second loss of the season.

The Cyclones will return to action Friday on the road against Shenandoah. Last season, they finished 12-11 making it to the second round of Regionals, losing 61-57. They were led by Lynnae Green averaging 19 points and 13.6 rebounds per game, along with Caroline Rogers averaging 2.5 assists.

“We need to get solid with the ball,” Klaassen said. “Our focus is going to be on taking care of the ball, valuing it, getting more patient, breaking the press, and once we get in the half court, getting a couple of reverses, and finding an easy bucket.”