Esko Girls Cruise To 69-13 Quarterfinal Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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Mar 3, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

UMD- The Esko Eskomos took the floor against the Virginia Blue Devils Saturday night and very quickly it was easy to see the Eskomos were going to control the flow and tempo of the contest which the Eskomos picked up the quarterfinal victory over Virginia by a score of 69-13.

The Blue Devils tried to slow the action down in the first few minutes of the game, trying to run a slow it down ball controlled contest to keep the ball away from the Eskomos and not allow Esko to feed the ball inside to Esko’s dominate post, Savanna Trapp.

The Blue Devils delay and ball control flew quickly to the wayside as the Eskomos perimeter players would force the action with their pressure defense, which force several turnover and led to easy Eskomos scores.

Virginia tried to be physical inside in the early going using two or three bodies to muscle the Eskomos Trapp, knocking her to the floor on several occasions. With Trapp taking an early break due to the physical nature; it was Megan Reuer who sparked the Eskomos inside game.

Senior Megan Reuer who used her size down low for two early scores and a free throw which had Esko off and running as they never looked back as they continued to use pressure defense and good ball movement which led to a 38-7 halftime lead.

Kallyn Knutson, Marisa Shady, Steph Miller, Bailey Mudek, Brook Schramm, and Erika Shady all used great defense to create turnovers for the outside which continued to let Esko dominate early into the second half as the Eskomos rolled into the section semi-finals on Tuesday night.

The Eskomos were led by Marisa Shady who finished with 17 points, Savanna Trapp added 12, Megan Reuer and Bailey Mudek each finished with 7 points, Kallyn Knutson had 6, Ashley Bergerson 5, Steph Miller, Brooke Schramm, and Erika Shady all had 4, Hailey Salo 2, and it was Steph Bandelin closing with 1 point for the Eskomos.

The Blue Devils were led by Sam Silcox who had 6 points for Virginia, Meekala Moore scored 3 points, and it was Morgan Cunningham and team mate Emily Sipola who both closed the Virginia scoring with 2 points in the loss to Esko.

Esko improves to 25-3 on the season and they will face the Mora Mustangs in a semi-final match-up at 7:45 Tuesday night at UMD. Mora and Esko battled to overtime in the Section 7AA quarterfinals last year; with the Eskomos coming out on top by a score of 56-54 The Blue Devils season comes to an end with an overall record of 11-17.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com