For nearly a week, the Jordan-Elbridge girls basketball team had to think about how it would operate without its most imposing court presence.
Molly Hourigan’s injury, suffered in the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ first loss of the season to Cazenovia on Jan. 13, took away the team’s leading scorer and defensive anchor, someone that could be counted on for double-digit points, rebounds and blocks on any given night.
But when J-E returned to action Wednesday night against a quality opponent in 4-3 Hannibal, little appeared to be amiss as the Eagles took out the Warriors 66-41.
For coach Leslie Ahern, the short-term solution proved quite simple – use the Eagles’ talented group of perimeter players to increase the tempo and see if the opposition would follow.
Here, that worked quite well, as J-E broke out of a 15-15 tie by dominating the second quarter. It used defensive pressure to force Hannibal into a series of bad shots and turnovers, then converted on the other end during an 18-4 spurt.
Steadily, the Eagles (8-1) pulled further away in the second half. Kelsey Richardson, with 14 points, led a balanced attack where Erin McLaughlin earned a season-best 12 points and Natalie Andrianos earned 11 points. Grace Dungey (eight points) and Kali Davis (six points) also helped as, in all, 10 different players got on the scoreboard.
