By Kendall Patterson
Staff Writer
The Eaglettes dominated the courts as a brute force when they played against Jackson North Side on Jan. 28.
The first half consisted of multiple steals, turnovers and points. On some possessions, the Eaglettes did not even let the Indians get the ball passed-in.
Since the team’s defense gets energized and plays well when the offense is making shots, the CCHS girls defense became a team that completely shut down the Indians. The final score had Chester county up by 51 points; 77-26.
Pipkin was even capable of putting in her bench players and give them a fair amount of playtime. In fact, the fourth quarter began with a three-pointer by Faith McManus. By the end of the game, 11 out of 12 of her players put up at least one point on the scoreboard.
Pipkin said these types of games where the lesser experienced excite her because the girls support and cheer on their fellow players with a lot of enthusiasm.
The girls wanted to hold them to 24 points in honor of Kobe Bryant who passed away in a helicopter accident on Jan. 26. Though they did not reach that goal, they found joy again once Pipkin reminded them that Bryant’s daughter Gianna, who also passed in the crash, wore the number 2 on her youth team; thus honoring them both.
The Eaglettes still have to improve their defensive efforts though Pipkin said.
“I told the girls if we’re going to make it anywhere in tournaments, we’re going to have to get better defensively.”
One would have thought that on Friday, Jan. 31, the Eaglettes were going to walk away with another victory against McNairy Central if they only watched the first half of the game. The first half went well for them. Nonetheless, during the second half, the CCHS girls began to fall behind due to making mistakes that they have made previous games; which resulted in them losing 55-40.
“I thought we played really good defense in the first half. We were hitting our shots. Everything was flowing. Everything was going well,” Pipkin said. “Then in the second half, they (McNairy) started surging and we didn’t want to play defense.”
Get a copy of the Chester County Independent next week for coverage of Homecoming and the game against Scotts Hill that took place Tuesday, Feb. 4.
