By Graham Karr
The Silver Lake Lady Mustangs faced the Franklin Flyers on Tuesday, January 21st. The Mustangs’ press allowed the team to get off to a hot start, leading the Flyers 14-0 at the end of the first quarter. Junior MaKenna Karr and senior Paige Faimon led the team defensively, with 5 and 4 steals, respectively. With some well-rounded scoring, with nine players scoring for the team, the Mustangs were able to maintain that lead, putting 17 points up to the Flyers’ 6 in the second quarter. The third quarter proved to be the same outcome, with Silver Lake adding 21 to their total and Franklin putting up 10. In the final quarter, the team added another 11 points to Franklin’s 10. Junior Sophie Schmidt led the team offensively with 15 points, with 9 of those coming from behind the 3-point line. Karr followed behind her with 11, and Faimon and seniors Emma Schmidt and Katy Soucek added 8 each. Soucek, Karr, and Sophie Schmidt helped the team on the boards, pulling down 7, 6, and 5, respectively. Soucek earned five of hers on the offensive end. As a team, they only had three turnovers, which proved to be the biggest differential in the game. Coach Sinsel commented, “It’s important to always show up and play to our level, and I felt like our girls took that to heart this game. On any given night, I think it’s important to always do the little things right, and I challenged the girls to focus on small areas of their game that we can each improve on. They showed up mentally and physically ready to play, and they maintained that mentality for four quarters, which is important as we get into the end of January and February.”
That Friday, it was the battle of the Mustangs, with Silver Lake taking on Sumner-Eddyville-Miller. Once again, Silver Lake’s defense allowed them the chance to jump to a quick lead. They came out with an 18-7 lead after the first quarter. After dropping back into half-court defense, SEM was able to put up 10 points in the second quarter, but Silver Lake added 15 of their own. The Mustang’s defense and strong rebounding proved to be the major difference for Silver Lake. The team had 23 steals for the night, while SEM had 9. Sophie Schmidt led the team with 8, and Emma Schmidt and Karr added 6 and 5 themselves. Silver Lake managed to outrebound SEM 43-22. Soucek pulled down 13, 9 from the offensive end, while Karr had nine herself. In the second half, Silver Lake added another 27 points to SEM’s 10. Karr led the charge offensively with 17 points, while Emma Schmidt had 11, with nine coming off of 3-pointers.