The Trinity basketball teams opened the season on a high note at home, as they came away with a doubleheader sweep of Frederick Fraize on Monday night.
The girls’ team relied heavily on sophomore Josie Aull and Cassidy Morris to pull away for a 54-43 victory, while the boys’ team used a blistering start en route to an 81-56 win.
————————
For photos from both games, click here.
———————–
RAIDERS 81, ACES 56
Trinity scored eight points in the first minute and blitzed their way to a 22-0 lead to start the game, setting the tone early for a dominant showing against Frederick Fraize.
The second- and third-string players saw plenty of minutes as head coach Nathan West subbed in waves all night.
“A lot of these guys got some experience last year, but they’re still pretty young,” he said. “Just trying to find that balance and who’s going to fill in for certain roles. We were just trying to throw it all out there and see who played well.”
It was a balanced effort, with 14 players all scoring at least two points. Kevin Foster led the way with 15 points, knocking down five of the team’s 11 3-pointers. Landon Huff added 11 points and Brenden Wathen added 10.
Others scoring for Trinity were Ben Goetz (8), Landon Hall (7), Elijah Boarman (6), Ethan Howard (4), Cade Mills (4), Nathan Hernandez (3), Denver Dickens (3), Landon Smith (3), Will Edge (3), Nick Goetz (2) and Gavin Howard (2).
Trinity pushed the pace from start to finish, using a pesky defense to quickly generate points at the other end.
“This year is a little bit different. We’re a little bit smaller, but we’re quick and athletic,” West said. “We want to try to push the tempo a little bit and press teams. Hopefully we will generate a lot of offense with our defense.”
The Raiders have three more big matchups this week, starting with a trip to Daviess County on Tuesday. They play at Henderson County on Thursday before returning home Saturday to face Apollo.
“I’m hoping we hit the ground running,” West said. “It’s fun to play. We want to get a lot of games under our belt early and hopefully get off to a good start.”
LADY RAIDERS 54, LADY ACES 43
Aull drilled five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 20 points to help Trinity fend off Frederick Fraize in a tight season-opener.
The Lady Raiders lead 26-20 at halftime, but the Lady Aces tied the game at 28-all early in the third quarter.
Strong play down low helped Trinity pull ahead again, and a 3-pointer by Aull gave them their biggest lead of the night at 41-29.
Frederick Fraize made one final pushed to get within four points midway through the fourth period, but another 3-pointer by Aull effectively sealed the win.
“Everybody’s happy to get a win,” said head coach Emily Hernandez. “Our girls our young. They are a talented group of kids, but they have some things they have to work on like help defense and moving without the ball and those types of things.”
Playing without lone senior Morgan Kinsey, the Lady Raiders relied on sophomores Aull and Cassidy Morris to lead the way.
“I thought Cassidy and Josie really stepped up,” Hernandez said. “Josie stepped up whenever Cassidy and (Katherine Hibbitt) got in foul trouble. Josie had great leadership through all of that. She was knocking down her shots, she handled the ball, and she was just a great leader on the floor tonight.”
Despite both getting in early foul trouble, Morris finished with 13 points and Hibbitt added 10. Also scoring were Hadley Hatfield (4), Allie Graham (4) and Kenzie McDowell (2).
Hernandez, who took over as head coach during the offseason, said she and the team are still working on getting more comfortable together as they look for more improvement.
“I’m a new coach with them,” she said. “Everybody does things a little bit different, so they have to stop and step back and think about what I’m telling them. Sometimes I’m changing things on them from what they’ve done in the past. We’ll continue to work and get better and hopefully be better on Friday.”
Stay up to date on all your local sports coverage by following @OwensboroSports on Twitter and by liking us on Facebook.
