BASKETBALL

McKinney girls work hard on court

The McKinney Bulldogs girls team weathered “another tough game” Thursday, Jan. 18, according to Coach Rena Balzer this week, falling to Middletown Christian, 7–42, at home.

Despite the loss, Balzer lauded the team’s progress since last facing Middletown in December, noting that the Bulldogs had scored more points against Middletown this time around, but that their rivals had scored “the same 42” points they did in December.

Balzer wrote: “More of our players are starting to shoot the ball — can’t score points if we don’t shoot, right? … We had far fewer jump ball tie-ups [and] much better HELP defense in our person-to-person [defense]; things are really starting to click here.”

Balzer — who keeps track of rebound, hustle and leadership efforts from players in each game — noted that player Malini Miller logged the most rebound points on Jan. 18, with Sage Oberg, Piper Millhoan and Violet Matteson also racking up rebounds.

Miller and Matteson tied for hustle, with Allee Bayard also contributing, and player Olivia Ward had the most leadership points.

“Everyone who can contribute at game time is contributing,” Balzer wrote.

The Bulldogs showed more evidence of closing gaps in a Monday, Jan. 22 game against Dominion, which the girls lost by a much slimmer margin of 13–19.

“Last year, Dominion scored 37 and 30 points against us,” Balzer wrote.

Two goals for the game, the coach said, were to keep Dominion under 30 points and to score 12 or more — and the team met both goals. She also noted that the game was the first for seventh grader Rythme Greene this season, adding that Greene “worked equally as hard in daily practices all season long” before her on-court debut, during which she racked up the most leadership points for the game.

Miller was again the leader for rebounds on Jan. 22, with Greene and Millhoan also logging several. Greene, Bayard, Millhoan and Matteson tied for hustle points.

The Bulldogs played a third game Tuesday, Jan. 23; results from that game will be reported in next week’s issue.

BOWLING

Boys still in second place

The varsity boys bowling team maintains its second-place position in the Metro Buckeye Conference following another win Monday, Jan. 22 against Legacy Christian Academy. The boys won 1,981 pins to 1,453.

Junior Zander Baisden led the team in scoring with 412 pins across two regular games; sophomore Noah Diamond was close behind with 349.

The Bulldogs currently have a season record of 5–2 and a conference record of 4–2 as they head into their final game of the season against Middletown Christian Monday, Feb. 5.