KETTERING — A 10-0 run to close out the third quarter helped carry Eaton’s girls’ basketball team to a 36-33 win over host Alter on Saturday, Dec. 28.
“Anytime you go up to a place as tradition-rich as Alter, and come away with a win, that’s a big moment as a program,” Eaton coach Dave Honhart said. “Alter is extremely well-coached, they play incredibly hard and they make it very difficult to have any sort of flow on offense. They are extremely physical within the rules, as they jam cuts, hit the boards hard and constantly pressure the ball; we told our players it might feel like playing football at times, and it definitely did, so we were pleased to walk away with a hard-fought team win. I thought we played pretty good defense as well, and we knocked down enough shots to come away with the win,”
The Eagles, now 8-1, were led by senior Bailey Shepherd’s 15 points, three rebounds and three steals.
Junior Lexi Miller added eight points and sophomore Allison Mowen contributed six points, three rebounds and two assists.
Senior Ashley Earley chipped in with three points and four rebounds.
Freshman Olivia Baumann came off the bench to record a team-high 12 rebounds, most coming in the second half as Eaton overcame a 16-12 halftime deficit.
“We asked Olivia Bauman to take control of the defensive boards, as that was a struggle for us early in the game, and she did exactly that by securing 10 defensive rebounds and 12 overall. Her rebounding was a key during the decisive third quarter when we came from four points down to take a five-point lead into the fourth quarter,” Honhart said.
Once Eaton grabbed the lead, Alter was forced to press and Honhart said his team was able to remain calm and close out the game.
“At times in the second half, they tried pressing us, and I thought (point guard) Ali Mowen did a great job of getting the ball into her hands, and calmly bringing it up against full court pressure,” he said.
Honhart said he expected points to be hard to come by.
“As a team, we figured out that we wouldn’t be able to run much against their defense, so we were going to need to drive and create for each other. We did this well early in the game, and then got back to it at key moments in the second half,” he said. “Lexi Miller did a nice job of hitting a couple of key three pointers in the second half and two free throws to ice the win. Bailey Shepherd did a nice job of breaking down their defense and opening up scoring opportunities. She also did a nice job of coming up with three steals. Ashley Earley did a nice job of battling for rebounds and going up strong around the rim and getting to the free throw line.”
Honhart said junior Kylee Kidwell contributed in areas that normally don’t show up in the box score.
“We always talk about players making the most of their minutes and I thought Kylee Kidwell did a great job of that with three strong assists against only one turnover and during the minutes she played, we outscored Alter by nine points,” he said.
Eaton was scheduled to travel to Oakwood on Monday, Dec. 28 and will visit Brookville on Saturday, Jan. 4.
