Eastside’s girls’ basketball team is 7-1. They are currently tied for first place in the Northeast Corner Conference with Fairfield. The Blazers went 2-0 this past week. Back on November 21st, they lost to Bishop Luers, their first loss of the season. But this past week, they bounced back with wins on Tuesday and Saturday.
“We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the Luers game, and that got us behind there,” head coach Mike Lortie said. “But I challenged my girls to come out and play better at the beginning of the next two games and see where we were at, and I thought we responded really well.”
Tuesday night’s win was against Woodlan, who is off to a good start. The Warriors currently have a 6-2 record. But the Blazers knocked them off 68-51. That 68-point total is the most anyone has scored against Woodlan this year. Eastside had 20 assists to just eight turnovers. They also came up with 12 steals, including five steals by shooting guard Paige Traxler. Traxler also hit five of the Blazers’ nine threes.
“[Woodlan] got us last year, and that was very disappointing for us,” Traxler said. “So it was super good to get them this year … and [to win] by 10 plus [points], it was really satisfying.”
“We found a lot of open looks, and we hit our open teammates,” guard Lilyan Kreischer said. “So it was really nice to be able to score against them. And then our defense was also really strong against them.”
The Blazers followed up that win by beating Garrett on the road on Saturday. While the Railroaders are 2-6, they had just held Leo to 30 points and only given up 47 points in an overtime game against Prairie Heights (both games were losses). Traxler did not play against Garrett, but Eastside scored 62 points. As with Woodlan, that’s the most points the Railroaders have given up all year. The final score was 62-31.
“We press and we get up and down the floor quite a bit,” Lortie said. “Our speed and pressure gave them problems. Right now we’re only averaging 12 and a half turnovers a game and we’re forcing 25. So we used the turnovers to press the issue, make them speed up, and take advantage of that.”
In their last two games, Eastside’s scoring has been balanced. In the Woodlan game, Traxler and Kreischer each scored 21 points, and Lucy Kitchen added 10. In the Garrett game, Kreischer and Sydnee Kessler each scored 16 points. Lucy Kitchen added 14, and Jayci Kitchen added 10.
“It makes me really happy as a player to see all my teammates scoring that many [points],” Traxler said. “It feels really good to not just have myself but also have a bunch of different teammates scoring that much. It gives everyone the confidence we need, and it just gives everyone that confidence and that booster to keep going.”
Eastside’s next game is against Northeast Corner Conference foe Churubusco. The Eagles are 3-6. But they did beat Westview in their last game. So far, they are 1-1 in conference play. The game is currently scheduled for 7:00 pm on Wednesday night.
“They’re gonna speed the game up. They like to play up and down the floor also,” Lortie said. “But we’re gonna keep putting pressure on them. We’re gonna play to do what we do and make the other teams have to adjust to us, and I think we’ll be fine.”
