The Atlantic Trojann girls’ basketball team hosted the seventh rated team in class 2A, (Iowa Sports Connection, 1/17), the Kuemper Catholic Knights, in a Hawkeye 10 conference basketball match-up, Tuesday night at the AMS gym.  The Trojanns were defeated 57-40.

“Defensively, I wasn’t too disappointed.  They’re a pretty potent team,” Coach Pelzer said.

Through the early stages of the first quarter, both teams were able to get inside looks.  The Knights used penetration to the hoop, while the Trojans used many plays get post touches, and easy looks at the basket.  The teams were deadlocked at six points a piece just past the halfway point of the first, before Kuemper ended the first quarter on a 9-0 run, to take a 15-6 lead.

Thoughout the first and the second quarter the Trojanns were able to control the boards, not giving up many second chances to the Knights.  Unfortunatly, the Trojanns were unable to solve the Kuemper zone defense, and were held without a bucket for a span of almost six minutes, causing Coach Pelzer to call a timeout.   At the end of the first half, the Trojanns trailed the Knights 26-10.  The Trojanns were led by senior Taylor Young’s six first half points.  Sophomore Lexi Albrecht led Kuemper with 13 points in the first half, nearly five points more than what she was averaging.  Coming into the game,  Albrecht was averaging 8.1 points per game.

“Our plan tonight was we were going to matchup man-to-man and make them beat us off the dribble, and that’s just what Lexi did in the first half,” Pelzer stated.

Young started the second half where she left off in the first half, with a quick lay-up to start the second half.  The Trojanns got as close as 13 points, 34-21 and 38-25, but were unable to cut enough into the Knights lead, to give themselves a chance to pull off the comeback.  The Trojanns were able to shut down Albrecht in the second half, scoring only two points, but were unable to shut down junior center Madi Drees.  Drees finished the night with 14 points.  The Trojanns found themselves trailing by 17 at the end of the third, 43-26.

Early in the fourth, the Knights took their largest lead of the game at 24, 52-28.  Junior forward, Alex Hartwig turned it on in the fourth quarter, making her prescence known by scoring five points for Atlantic.  Young also had a big second half, scoring 13 of her team high 19 points, in the second half.

Coach Pelzer commented on Young’s performance,”Taylor Young is really developing into a scorer, which is what we really need.”

Despite the 17 point margin of victory for the Knights, the Trojanns were only outscored in the second half by one point, 31-30.

“Having a thirty point half was awesome for us,” Pelzer noted.

The Trojanns have a rare Friday night without a basketball game, and will not play again until next Tuesday at Glenwood.