Trojanettes start year with Stanton victory
ESSEX — It has been five years since the Essex Trojanettes defeated the Stanton Viqueens in a basketball game.
That streak ended last week.
Essex held off a late rally by the Viqueens to get a 49-45 win in its home opener last Tuesday at Allen Stuart Gymnasium.
It’s the first win for Essex since Jan. 30, 2009.
“I was in there yelling, whooping it up with them,” Essex girls basketball coach Jay Soderberg said. “We lost by 35 to them last year. They lost a lot, we’ve got a lot to work on, but that’s a win against Stanton. That’s a heck of a turnaround.”
The Trojanettes had a 10 point lead entering the fourth quarter as Stanton fought back to close the gap.
During the final stretch, Soderberg told his team not to panic.
“We’re winning. They have to score more than we do down the stretch,” Soderberg told his team.
Essex maintained a 10 point lead for much of the fourth quarter, until with 2:03 left Heidi Vanderholm was fouled on a made shot and made the free throw to make it 46-39.
Vanderholm followed up with another bucket less than 30 seconds later and the lead was down to 46-42.
Essex got the ball across the court as Daiton Martin was fouled with 1:12 left. Martin made both free throws to put Essex ahead 48-41.
Stanton quickly scored again when Haley Weis was fouled on a made shot with 1:03 to go. With the bucket, Stanton trailed 48-41.
Essex used much of the final minute holding onto the ball, not turning it over. With 10.5 seconds left in the game Kym Graham was fouled. Graham made one of two free throws to put the Trojanettes up 49-43.
“I thought they would have been full court press on us. When we got back and we almost got a chance to slow our nerves down, that helped big time for us,” Soderberg said.
Stanton scored once more in the final seconds, courtesy of a bucket by Ally Focht.
Scoring came at a premium in the first quarter as Essex scored the lone points of the game to take a 5-0 lead by the end of the period.
The Viqueens woke up and scored six straight points to briefly take the lead. The teams swapped the lead once before Essex took it back.
Essex held a close lead, 23-19, at halftime.
Graham led the way in scoring for Essex with 16 points and had nine rebounds.
Jescenia Mosley meanwhile had a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Martin had seven points, while Bethany Johnson had six points.
Essex lost Friday night to Nishnabotna 47-42. The Trojanettes led for much of the game, but Nishnabotna rallied in the fourth quarter to get the victory.
Graham had 21 points and 13 rebounds, getting a double-double. Amber Ohnmacht finished with 11 points and had five rebounds.
Essex plays three games this week. It all starts Tuesday night when they go to Clarinda to play Clarinda Academy.
They’ll be home both Thursday and Friday night to play Heartland Christian and East Mills.
All three games start at 6 p.m.