Villisca girls beat Lenox, Griswold to start season

GRISWOLD—The Villisca Blue Jays Girls’ basketball team won their second game of the season after defeating Griswold 33-22, in Griswold Friday night.
The score was tied 8-8 after the first quarter, but the Blue Jays soon jumped out to a five-point lead at halftime. Villisca built their lead throughout the second half and eventually came away with the win.
Amanda Focht led the Blue Jays in scoring with 10 points. Courtney Auxier finished second in scoring for the Blue Jays with nine points. Brooke Hansen and Britany Elwood scored 14 of Griswold’s 22 points.
Villisca won their first game of the season last Tuesday night against the Lenox Tigers, 67-44.
Jill Vanderhoof led the Blue Jays with 17 points in their season debut on parent’s night.
Villisca opened the first quarter with an 8-0 run and maintained a 16-7 lead by the end of the first quarter.
“I was hoping to put a little pressure on them real quick,” Blue Jays Head Coach Donna Williams said.
The Blue Jays distributed points all around, as Vanderhoof, Morganne Haer and Bree Ann Fisher each scored four points in the first quarter.
Despite a more active second quarter for the Tigers, Villisca held on to an 11-point lead at halftime, leading 36-25.
The Blue Jays built their lead more and more in the second half, leading 52-38 after three quarters. Villisca once again distributed the ball around for points and went on to win by 23 points.
“We gave up a lot of points on turnovers, but overall I thought our shooting was pretty good for the first game of the season,” Williams said. “There’s things we still need to work on, especially handling the ball and turnovers, but overall the performance was good.”
Amanda Focht finished the night with 16 points, while Fisher and Haer combined for 25 points in the win against Lenox.
“I don’t like to have one star because it’s easy to shut one down,” Williams said. “We have a lot, it’s just a good team feel to it.”
With the wins, Villisca is now 2-0 for the season.