Reardan girls win seventh straight

REARDAN – The Screaming Eagles' girls basketball team scored 35 points before Warden made its first point of the game in Reardan's 46-20 win, Friday, Jan. 3. The win improved the Screaming Eagles' record to 9-1.

Just like a hornet's nest being poked by a stick, Reardan's defense swarmed all over Warden in the game's first half. The overwhelmed Cougars had trouble getting the ball to the basket, and when they did, they threw up off-balance and awkward shots.

As in previous games, the Screaming Eagles' pressure defense, ability to anticipate passes, and quick hands resulted in numerous steals. In this game they had 19. Tenice Waters had six steals and younger sister Chasyn Waters swiped five passes. Rylynn Green kicked off the scoring onslaught with three 3-point shots in the first quarter. Lillie Whitman had two of her own. Tenice Waters led all scorers with 11 first half points.

At halftime Reardan lead 35-1.

"Out pressure got them early," Reardan head coach Bob Swannack said.

In the second half, Reardan scored only 11 points as Swannack substituted freely.

"I was disappointed in our second half," Swannack said. "We didn't defend well in the half court, and we struggled with composure. But those are learning moments."

Green scored 11 points, grabbed four rebounds and had three steals. Tenice Waters scored nine points. Whitman ended the game with eight points. Mackenzie Bjornberg had six points, four rebounds and a steal. Chasyn Waters scored four points to go along with her five steals and seven rebounds. Raegan Soliday had one basket and three rebounds. Isabella Abrahamson had three points and three rebounds. Olivia Wicks scored two points and grabbed six rebounds and Emersen Sprecher scored one point and had four rebounds and a steal.

Piper Cox scored 12 points for Warden.

Swannack was pleased with the win but unhappy with his team's lack of urgency.

"One thing that we talk about is that winning teams don't have consecutive quarters or halves with a lack of competitiveness and attention to detail," he said. "This proves that we have work to do. We have a lot of good pieces to a high caliber puzzle but they all need to fit together perfectly in order to continue raising the bar."

"It wasn't one of our better games," Whitman said. "We knew we were going to win so kind of walked the dog after halftime. In the first half our energy was good but after that, it was down. Also, we lost our discipline. We need to start playing with energy the whole game if we are going to improve."

"We came out fast tonight," Green said. "We took good care of the ball and passed the ball to the open person but still need to work on keeping our energy up."

The Screaming Eagles' next home game is against Medical Lake Saturday, Jan.11, at 4:30 p.m.