Certain stats were higher than usual for the Community R-6 girls and boys in Friday night's doubleheader against Mark Twain. The Lady Trojans went 20-for-38 on free throws in a 60-44 win against the Lady Tigers and then the Trojans turned the ball over 32 times to lose 66-43 to Mark Twain.
In the girls game, a combined 64 free throws were shot (Mark Twain 14-for-26 at line) as the Lady Trojans (2-2) were persistent in taking shots at the rim. Kylie Brooks led with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds, Peyton Beamer had 12 points, five rebounds and two 3-pointers, Brooklynn Glasgow finished with 10 points, five rebounds and an 8-for-11 clip on free throws, and Alyssa Beamer had 10 points. Taylor Martin led Mark Twain (1-2) with 14 points.
"We really attack the rim, and we want to get to the free-throw line," head coach Bob Curtis said. "We want to win on the offensive and defensive glass, and if we do that, we're going to shoot a lot of free throws. There's going to be a lot of games where we shoot a lot of free throws and we have to be really solid at the line because that's where a lot of our points are going to come from."
"Free throws are a thing we do have to work on in practice and outside of practice too," Brooks said. "It can make our score a lot higher if we do start making our free throws."
During halftime of the girls game, the Community R-6 FFA sponsored a "Cover the Court" event that involved the crowd throwing stuffed toys on the court, with donations going to the University Children's Hospital.
In the boys game, Mark Twain (1-3) took advantage of Community's turnovers, with 25 of those being recorded as steals, so its athletes like Sam Northcutt could run in transition. Northcutt finished with a game-high 26 points followed by 16 points from Quin Eckler and 11 points from Aydan Dye. Community had a big game from Mason Carroll as he finished with 22 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks and Caden Thomas added 11 points (nine in the second half), six rebounds and three steals.
"We can't do that," head coach Kody Asquith said. "Say we get half of (the 32 turnovers) back and say we score half of the points, it's not a 20-point game but a four-point game. It was the pace of the game. They set the tone for the game, and we never took a step back and tried to slow the game down."
The Lady Trojans play at Silex (1-2) at 6 p.m. Monday and the Trojans play the Owls (0-2) in the game after that at 7:30 p.m.
Look for the full stories in the Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, edition of the Mexico Ledger.
