By Rob Potter
ELDRED — Tuxedo girls’ basketball team finally found some offensive rhythm Thursday night in a 53-17 blowout victory over Eldred. The question is can they keep it going. Due to a scheduling quirk, the Lady Tornadoes don’t play again for eight days.
“Our schedule is crazy,” Tuxedo coach Dave Powers said. “When we played Tri-Valley last week, it was our first game in 13 days. Now we have to wait eight days to play our next game.”
Tuxedo showed no rust against Eldred, using balanced scoring and tight defense to open a quick first quarter lead. Alex Nouri set the tone for the Lady Tornadoes when she stole the ball twice and made a layup after each theft within a 20- second span to give her team a 14-2 lead with just over five minutes left in the period.
Tuxedo (6-2, 4-1 Div. V) continued to increase its advantage, taking a 22-point halftime cushion.
“We worked hard on defense and played good, solid basketball,” he said. “And for the first time this season, we started to get into a good rhythm on offense.
“In the first quarter, our bench kids came in and got us going in that offensive rhythm,” Powers added. “It was a great team effort tonight. Everybody got a chance to play.”
Kaylah Pickney led Tuxedo with a game-high 11 points. Teammates Alex Gundermann and Alex Nouri each added eight points.
Tomara Bodnaruik scored seven points to pace Eldred (4-5, 2-3 Div. V). She also had six rebounds.
Also contributing for the Lady Yellowjackets were Erin Anjus, who scored six points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Kayla Kelly, who had six rebounds and blocked three shots.
“We almost tripled our points from the last time we played them, so it was an improvement,” Eldred Coach Jolene Porter said. “We want to improve with each game. We have a young group of players.”
While the Lady Yellowjackets’ have four seniors – Tomara Bodnaruik, Caitlin Hallock, Anj McKerrell and Alexis Pierce – on the roster, only Bodnaruik saw significant playing time for the team last season. Pierce didn’t play basketball at all last season.
Junior Erin Angus transferred to Eldred for this school year and junior Abigail Ellert played for the Eldred JV team last season. Another junior, Kayla Kelly, was on the varsity team last year but did not have a lot of playing time.
Porter noted that the team was hampered by the absence of two players on Thursday night. Emily Bisland is out for the season with a knee injury, while Julia Wilk missed the game due to illness.