(Anita) CAM’s ability to take care of the basketball has been a big strength for the team this season, according to coach Joe Wollum.
The Cougars are 6-2 at the break with losses to Woodbine and Exira-EHK. Coach Wollum comments on what stands out about their play. “How we’ve handled pressure and not having as many turnovers. We’ve really cleaned that up. It’s something I really want to see continue. Going back to the Exira-EHK game we were a couple of turnovers away from winning that game. If we can continue to not have empty possessions then the way some of our girls are shooting the ball I think that’s really going to evolve into some more points per possession for us and that’s something we really want to try and improve on.”
CAM still has an outside in the Rolling Valley Conference race. They’ll get rematches with Woodbine and Exira-EHK within the next few weeks. “We play both of them right away in January. We start off with the last conference for the first time through at Glidden-Ralston when we get back from break and then we have a non-conference game with SW Valley and then we are right back at Woodbine. Both of those games are on the road with Woodbine and Exira-EHK so we’ll have our hands full, but after both of those games we felt we were better than how we played that night. We have to find a way to get that out and execute better on the big stage and hopefully can come around with a different result than the first time we played them.”
Others have contributed in ways that don’t always show on the box score. “I look at a person like Meredith Rich. She’s not shooting the ball particularly right now, but she’s getting it done on the defensive end, she’s rebounding, and she’s setting some girls up with good passes. She brings that kind of toughness that we need. I totally expect her after Christmas Break to knock down some shots. The law of averages will take over and she’ll be filling the stat she with some points, but in the mean time she’s doing what we need out of her.”
CAM is working this week to get back up to speed after some time off. “Getting everybody back after a short week off, we are just getting back in the gym and getting fundamentals back in order.. We lose our conditioning pretty quick over break. We are trying to get our feet underneath of us.”
Eva Steffensen leads CAM with 17.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 2.8 steals per game. Reese Snyder and Kiera Nichols are both averaging 11 points per game and Meredith Rich 9.9.
CAM coach Joe Wollum:
