Curry, E-gals press propels them past South Warren for first win

December 3, 2021 | 12:05 am

Updated December 3, 2021 | 1:23 pm

Photo by Gage Johnson

Keeping South Warren on its toes all night long with fullcourt pressure, Apollo created chaos en route to a 59-48 win.

After South Warren got the first points of the game at the free throw line, the E-gals press sparked a 7-0 run. Once Apollo grabbed the lead, they never looked back.

They had a balanced offensive attack, earning a lot of offense by creating turnovers and going into the second quarter with a 19-10 lead.

The E-gals started the second quarter on a 6-0 run before surrendering a 6-0 run to the Lady Spartans and taking a timeout up 25-16 with 3:08 left in the first half.

Apollo closed out the second quarter strong with a 7-2 run, going into the second half holding a 32-18 lead.

Coming out of the locker room, South Warren was doing its best to put together a comeback effort thanks to some solid three-point shooting, cutting its deficit to 41-29 with 3:40 left in the third.

Down 12 going into the fourth the Lady Spartans weren’t done either, making it a 45-37 game with six minutes left to play.

However, Apollo continued to force South Warren into turnover after turnover, closing out the game and earning its first win of the season at 59-48 in front of its home crowd.

Despite the little dip in play at the beginning of the second half, Payne was pleased with the vigor her team showed on both ends of the floor.

“I was pleased with the intensity and the energy level, especially from the start,” Payne said. “In the second half the momentum changed a little bit because they started hitting shots and some threes were falling and that kind of thing. But I really liked the way that we started. The intensity and the energy, it just spreads.”

Offensively the E-gals had three players finish in double figures including senior Amaya Curry (18), sophomore Jenna Dant (16) and senior Shelbie Beatty (13).

It was Curry and Beatty who made Apollo’s offense go, controlling the pace of play and combining for 13 assists on the night.

“They’re my senior guards,” Payne said. “They’ve been through the wars. Last year they got a lot of experience in facing some really good caliber teams. So they’re our leaders and we expect them to lead and be an extension of us as coaches every night and I thought they did a good job of that.”

A decent chunk of Curry’s offense came from her defensive pressure all night long, as she led the team with six steals in the game.

“This stemmed from last year,” Payne said. “She really got in that mindset of defense first and she realized that if she can have deflections and really hawk the ball and read lanes that’s going to create opportunities on the other end and she’s really bought into that.”

While its early in the season, Payne feels as though this intense defense can be a staple of their team going forward this year.

“We’re still experimenting, but I feel like that’s what gets us into the game,” Payne said. “It gets us focused and then we can adjust from there. We really have to be a team that can have that high energy. If we are playing at a level even a notch below that, we can really get laxed with our defense. So we’ve got to have some kids that can come off the bench too to give us rest when we want to play that way and that’s something that will come in time.”

The only concern for Apollo on the night was taking some inadvertent shots late instead of running out the clock. With a young roster there will be some learning curves early in the season and Payne said that these are things that they will fix with experience.

“We do have Amaya and Shelbie as our senior leaders, but we’ve got three other kids out there at all times that did not play any varsity basketball,” Payne said. “So we’re going to work on time and score and situational stuff. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet. We still have that mindset of a little bit of a panic shot or panic pass because we’re young, but like I said that’s something we’re really going to work on.”

Now sitting at 1-1 with their first win under their belt, the E-gals turn their attention to a matchup with Lyon County at noon on Saturday in the Lady Mustang Classic.

“The mentality we have right now because there’s not a lot of film out there is we really have to focus on us,” Payne said. “We’ll just have to make adjustments and kinda know a little bit about personnel, but we really gotta focus in on what we can do and our strengths and weaknesses.”

December 3, 2021 | 12:05 am

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