Titan girls earn win over Lennox during Pink Out Night

On Friday, Feb. 10 the Tea Area High School girls’ basketball team traveled to Lennox to face off against a strong Oriole team who had just five losses on the season coming into the match-up.

The Titans jumped out early, leading 18-8 at the end of the opening quarter and held off the Orioles the remainder of the game to get the 66-51 victory.

“The Lennox game is always a big one for us and I thought the girls were really focused from the start. They had a couple mismatches that were tough for us to guard at times but I thought overall we did a great job of defending them and offensively we were able to take advantage down low,” said head coach Adam Schorzmann. “One thing I’ve been impressed with the last couple of weeks has been our teams overall effort and focus. We’ve also been shooting really well from the free throw line which helps us close out those big games.”

Against Lennox, the Titans hit 14 of 19 free throws. Tea Area was led by Katie Vasecka and Mara Grant who had 23 and 22 points respectively. Vasecka scored seven points at the line and grabbed eight rebounds and had one assist. Grant had nine rebounds and three steals. Kendra McKinney also finished in double figures, scoring 12 points. She grabbed four rebounds, had two assists and five steals. Stella Peterson added four points, grabbed two rebounds, had four assists and two steals. Miah Weber had three points, one rebound and Haidyn West finished with two points, two rebounds, and one steal.

Prior to the win over Lennox, the Titans faced off against Dell Rapids and grabbed the 70-45 victory over the Quarriers.

“The Dell Rapids game was a good one for us because Dells, despite their record, has been playing pretty good basketball,” said Schorzmann. “We thought if we could come out and execute on offense and be solid defensively we’d be in a good spot at the end of the game. Any time you get three scorers in double figures and cause the other team to turn the ball over 23 times is going to a pretty good recipe for success.”

The Titans lead early against Dells, 20-10 after the opening quarter, and used a 22-8 third quarter advantage to really open things up. For the Titans, both Grant and Vasecka finished with 18 points on the night. Grant grabbed eight rebounds, had one assist and three steals. Vasecka recorded a double-double, pulling down 13 rebounds to go with her 18 points. She also had five assists.

Weber finished with ten points, one rebound, one assist, and two steals. McKinney had seven points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Both West and Peterson scored six points in the game. Hannah West provided three points and Natalie Gass two.

The Titans traveled to Brandon Valley to face off against a strong Class AA team. Tea Area led by as many as nine in the opening quarter, but the Titans were outscored 18-10 in the second, allowing Brandon Valley to get the 73-65 victory.

Vasecka had a strong game offensively for the Titans, hitting three three-pointers and finishing with 31 points. She also had nine rebounds and three assists. McKinney added nine points, five rebounds, and six assists. Grant had eight points and led the team off the boards with 14 rebounds. Peterson finished with seven points, four rebounds and four assists and Haidyn West had eight points and three assists. The Titan girls were scheduled to host Yankton on Thursday, Feb. 16 and will host Elk Point Jefferson on Friday, Feb. 17 in their final regular season game. Both match-ups are double-headers with the Titan boys.