Ranked Lions defeat Tigers in opener

KEOTA — The Iowa Valley girls had a tough match-up to start the basketball season Friday night.

The Tigers fell to Class 1A No. 10 Lone Tree 48-27 at the 4 Corners Shootout at Keota High School.

The Lions returned all but one varsity player from last season, coming off a strong 19-4 record.

Three players made their first career start for the Tigers.

A big reason for the Lions. convincing victory was their ability to force turnovers, creating more opportunities to score.

“We struggled with their zone press,” Iowa Valley head coach Janet Holst-Behrens said. “At times we made it look easy and got past the first line, but then we could not take it to the next level.”

The Tigers kept it close in the first quarter.

Both teams struggled to score. Lone Tree was up 6-4 Lone Tree with three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

A Rylee Shield putback with less than 10 seconds left made the score 11-7 Lone Tree after one.

The Lions scored the first 10 points of the second quarter before a post move from Myla Frimml ended the run to make it 21-9.

The Lions led 28-15 at halftime.

The Tigers started the second half with five straight points from Lydia Kriegel to cut the lead to 10, but the Lions outscored the Tigers 8-2 through the rest of the third period.

“We showed spurts where we looked really good and points where we got stuff to work on,” Holst-Behrens said.

That was the case again in the fourth quarter as the Tigers went on another 5-0 run to cut the lead to 11, but the Lions ended game on 10-0 run.

Finley Jacque led the Lions in scoring with 13 points.

Lydia Kriegel scored 14 of the Tigers 27 points.

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With a lot of new faces stepping up into bigger roles, the Tigers may take some time to gel. Playing a few early games before Thanksgiving break could help.

“I think we got pieces, we just got to put those pieces together,” Holst-Behrens said on her team. “It is just going to take some time.”

Holst-Behrens hopes to see more confidence from her players on the offensive side with more reps and experience.

“The biggest thing is having confidence in their scoring abilities,” Holst-Behrens said.

“With a lack of experience there is just hesitation to sometimes shoot. They just have to keep playing and work through the adversity of putting these pieces together.”

The Tigers also played Highland Saturday night on day two of the 4 Corners Shootout.

Highland won, 54-42.