Glenwood starts fast, beats Red Oak girls 55-40

RED OAK – Glenwood’s fast start and Danika Lucy inside was too much for Red Oak in a 55-40 Ram victory in Hawkeye 10 Conference girls’ basketball last Tuesday.    
The Rams (4-4 overall, 3-3 in the conference) opened the game hitting 5-of-6 shots on an 11-2 run and led 22-6 after the first quarter en route to winning their third straight game heading into the holiday break.
“This has been a good little stretch for us heading into Christmas break,” said Glenwood coach Wendy Lausen after the game. “We wanted to come out fast and look to push it on them.”
Glenwood led 32-17 at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Rams pulled away, behind a steady dose of Lucy. The 6-foot-3 senior, who is five inches taller than any Tiger regular, had her way inside in the frame. She scored eight points on 4-of-6 shooting in the quarter and her layup with 2:58 to go gave Glenwood a 20 point lead at 42-22.
The Rams’ lead would swell to as many as 24 in the quarter.
The Tigers would not go away in the fourth quarter, however. Back-to-back layups by Maysen Havner and a three-pointer by Hannah Vial keyed an 8-0 run to trim the Rams’ lead to 48-34 with 5:57 to go in the game.
With Glenwood struggling at that free throw line down the stretch – 2-of-8 the final five minutes – the Tigers further bit into the lead with full court pressure that forced six fourth quarter turnovers. Angela Mahoney’s jumper clipped the lead to 54-40 with 1:20 to go but that was as close as the Tigers would get.
Lausen said her team has had issues this season putting teams away late in games.
“They were the ones who came out in the second half and pushed us,” Lausen said. “I keep talking to the girls about playing four quarters. It just seems like we have a little lull at some point throughout the game. I challenged the girls to take five days off and come back after the break ready to have that game mentality the entire game.”
Red Oak coach Dan Martinez said slow starts have been a stumbling block for his team in the early portion of their season.
“All season the first quarter has been our lowest scoring quarter,” Martinez said. “We adjust usually, and we had 10 (points) in the second quarter and in the second half we were better. We played hard. Their defense frustrated us a little bit. We had a tough time guarding Danika and shooting over her.”
Lucy was big, literally, for the Rams all night. She finished with a game-high 16 points and seven blocked shots.
“We watched a lot of film of them and we wanted to reverse the ball and run an overload and get Danika one-on-one inside,” Lausen said. “They did a nice job getting her the ball and she did a nice job finishing.”
Molly Dean added 13 and Myranda Starner nine for Glenwood.
Vial led Red Oak with 15 points. Mahoney added 13.
Glenwood is back in action following the holiday break hosting Clarinda Jan. 5. The Tigers return to action Jan. 2 at Treynor.