Lady Indians show promise in jamboree

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St. Vincent girls basketball coach Melvin Kirn had a simple gameplan on just what he was looking for out of his team in their game action of the season.
“I just wanted to see how the girls played together,” Kirn said. “I don’t look at the score or anything like that. I just wanted to see how we looked as a team.”
St. Vincent competed in a three-team jamboree with Kelly and Scott City on Friday night and as Kirn may have expected from his team, the Indians started the first contest with Scott City with some turnovers, but as the night progressed Kirn felt his team improved.
“We had a lot of turnovers in that first game, but we came back and played more like a team,” Kirn said. “We still had some turnovers, but they did a good job of looking for each other and moving without the ball. “
St. Vincent fell to Scott City 28-15 in 18 minutes of action and came back against Kelly and walked away with a 15-12 win.
The game against Kelly is more of how Kirn believes his team will win this season. Mary Schwartz came away with a steal and passed ahead to Genevieve Lipe for the first basket. Addison Cates scored shortly after on a jumper and Lipe drove to the basket for a layup to take a 7-5 lead.
“We are not just going to sit back and settle for threes,” Kirn. “We want to drive and get it into the paint.”
However that doesn’t mean the Indians won’t shoot the ball when they have the chance, or when they are open.

“The thing I have to drill into their head to shoot the ball,” Kirn said. “We had some shots tonight where the girls were open and passed it up. I don’t want the girls to be afraid to shoot. I told them during a timeout that I won’t yank them out of the game just because they missed a shot. That’s just not going to happen.”
Kirn was also pleased with his team’s defense that held Kelly’s Alaney Moore to single digit points in the three quarters.
“In the first game, I thought she looked dominant at times against Scott City,” Kirn said of Moore. “I sat and watched that Scott City game she was taking it straight to the basket and I thought we shut her down to some degree.”
St. Vincent was also able to come away with three steals that were converted into baskets against Kelly and forced multiple bad passes for the Hawks. Lacey Best was also able to get an offensive rebound putback and another basket off a nice entry pass.
The tough play was something that Kirn harped on after the jamboree.
“I thought Mary Schwartz took a good charge, although it wasn’t called one,” Kirn said. “The best thing was that when we stole the ball, the girls had their head up and looked for the outlet pass. That’s part of what I want the girls to do. Defense and rebounding comes easy as long as the effort is there. The offense is the last thing that clicks together. That’s what we have to continue to work at. If we can get that to click, I think we can have a good season.”
Another factor for that good season, should be the returning players for the Indians. St. Vincent returns seven seniors and another three juniors that reached the district championship the last two seasons.
“That’s a lot of experience coming back,” Kirn said. “This group has been through a lot together and have a lot of experience. I’m excited to see what they can do, I just can’t mess it up as a coach.
St. Vincent will take on Advance at home tonight at 6 p.m. for the team’s first game. There will not be at junior varsity contest.