GREENVILLE — The Eaton Eagle girls’ basketball team split a pair of games during its opening weekend at the Annie Oakley Shootout hosted at Greenville High School on Friday, Nov. 20 and Saturday, Nov. 21.
On Friday, Nov. 20, the team opened its season with a 70-36 victory over Graham. Senior Julia Titus led the Eagles with 18 points and was a “beast” around the rim according to head coach Dave Honhart, pulling down six rebounds while shooting 9 of 15 from the field.
Senior Paige Whitesell had a strong game running the team, according to Honhart, stuffing the stat sheet with 15 points, six assists and seven steals.
Honhart was pleased with his team’s effort on the opening night, saying they did a good job of playing to the team’s strengths — shooting 29-of-66 for 44 percent as a team.
Honhart was also pleased with starting sophomore guard Sydney Lamberson. She was 3-of-5 from the field for eight points, and she also tallied five assists without committing a turnover.
“Graham is a solid team,” Honhart said afterwards. “Considering our lack of experience, we were pleased to pull away and play as well as we did, especially the first twenty minutes.”
The following night the team lost to defending Division III state champion Versailles, 71-28.
The Eagles fought tough early on and according to Honhart his team came out with a lot of intensity. The Eagles battled the Tigers to a 14-12 score before a 19-2 Tiger run made the score 33-14.
“Versailles puts tremendous pressure on the basketball — we committed a lot of turnovers and those are shots you don’t get to take, “Honhart said.
Titus led the Eagles in scoring with eight points, adding five rebounds.
Honhart was happy with senior senior Madi Bowman’s play despite the loss.
“She did a very good job of playing her role against Versailles,” he said. Bowman finished with six points and three rebounds.
Opening weekend, according to Honhart, will offer valuable experience to the relatively inexperienced team. “We learned what we are capable of on Friday,” he said, but added, “Saturday we learned we have a long way to go against the best competition.”
The Eagles are now 1-1 on the season and play at Franklin on Saturday, Nov. 28 at 1:15 p.m.
