LCS shakes E-burg in one-sided game

Lights-out shooting in the first quarter paved the road to a 58-26 victory for the Le Mars girls basketball team against the E-Hawks on Friday.

Senior Mary Kate Eckstaine got things going for the Lady 'Dogs and made two consecutive three pointers early on.

Then senior Emily Pick stepped up and made three treys in a row, putting Le Mars up 15-0.

The Lady 'Dogs held Emmetsburg scoreless in the entire first quarter and were up 17-0.

"We came out and the shots were dropping and we were able to build a nice lead right off the bat," Le Mars coach Judd Kopperud said. "Anytime you can hit shots you are obviously in a good position to win games. We were lucky we really got off to a nice start and were able to shoot the ball well."

The E-Hawks were finally able to get on the board in the second stanza, but could not gain any ground on the Lady 'Dogs.

At halftime, the score was 29-11, LCS.

With the game out of reach for Emmetsburg, things remained much the same in the second half. Le Mars controlled the pace on the floor and was up 37-20 after three periods.

In the final eight minutes of the game, several Lady 'Dogs contributed off the bench and made the gap even wider.

At the final buzzer, Le Mars was up by a margin of 32 points.

Kopperud was pleased with his team's performance just three days after a devastating one-point loss against Storm Lake.

"I was really proud of the way the girls bounced back," Kopperud said. "They really competed hard tonight and really hustled. That was fun to see and shows the mental toughness of the girls and how resilient they are."

Pick led her team in scoring with 16 points, making five three point attempts. Senior Carolyn Ahlers had 14 points and four assists. Eckstaine followed with 10 points and four assists.

Defensively, seniors Molly Renken, Ashley Phelan and Ahlers racked up four rebounds each.

With the win, the Lady 'Dogs' record improves to 5-9.

"We still have the chance to make some noise in the conference," Kopperud said. "Hopefully we keep getting better and hopefully we can peak at the right time, postseason time, which is around the corner right now."

Le Mars will face Western Christian in an away game on Tuesday.