Triton Women Open Season with 72-41 Victory
New faces along with leadership from returning sophomores led the Women's Basketball team to a season opening 72-41 victory on Friday night in Hodges. Triton Head Coach, Sabah Dickerson, knew her team was ready for opening night and the excitement of playing in Hodges Fieldhouse. "Our team has been more focused in the recent weeks leading up to the start of the regular season. We always love to start our season in Hodges Fieldhouse. It's such an electric place for us and our students came out and brought their energy to support us. We have a lot of new faces this season and this was a great way to introduce them to the community of Fort Dodge.
A fast start gave the Tritons a 37-16 at the half and they never looked back in the 72-41 win. Freshman, Kayla Johns-McGarity led the way her first game with 15 points, nine rebounds, four steals, two assists, and two blocks. Newcomer Leela Jones added 13 points while sophomores Lainey Maehl and Olivia Miller picked up right where they left off last season recording 9 points and 2 rebounds and 9 points and 5 rebounds respectively.
As a team, the Tritons forced 22 turnovers and collected 44 rebounds. Coach Dickerson was proud of the Tritons' preparation leading up to gameday to be ready. "They jumped all over the scouting report this week and utilized that to create a strong lead over Graceland. We forced turnovers, were aggressive at attacking, and kept our foot on the gas to keep Graceland off-balance."
"Kayla Johns-McGarity did a phenomenal job at creating second chance opportunities for us. She can be relentless on the glass and isn't afraid to finish through contact. Lainey Maehl does all of the little details right. She understands our style of play and has been working to push our forwards in that capacity. Our point guards have a big responsibility of getting us organized on the offensive end and Leela (Jones), Hannah (Bogdonovich), and Mikiyah (Holmes) handled that role well to start their careers." added Dickerson. "Our continued goal to develop leaders on this team and of course, to develop our team as we prepare ourselves for the very rigorous Region 11. We were able to work in everyone tonight and over the next few weeks, we will continue to grow as a team on both ends of the floor."
Up next for the Tritons is a trip to Kansas City for matchups with Metropolitan (11/8) and Haskell Indian Nations JV (11/9) before returning to Hodges on November 13th to host Central-Columbus.
Key Statistic – Twelve Tritons found the scoring column - lead by Kayla Johns-McGarity's 15 pooints.
Game images can be found at www.facebook.com/ictritons