CAMDEN – The outside game opened up wide for Arcanum on Tuesday night as the Lady Trojans poured in nine 3-pointers en route to a 66-51 non-conference win at Preble Shawnee.
Six of those 3-pointers came in the first quarter and they had eight of the nine by halftime. Camille Pohl and Madelyn Fearon had three triples each and Gracie Garno, Hailey Unger and Kayla O’Daniel had one apiece. Comparatively, the Arrows had only one 3-pointer the entire game.
“We have been challenged outside a lot this year, but not inside,” said first-year Arcanum coach Michael Dean. “That inside game is now starting to open up the outside game and that is what we want. We want our opponent to understand they are going to have to choose their poison. We have good girls inside and we have good shooters outside so that is the balance we want to find as a team and we want opponents to have to choose which they are going to try and stop. Hopefully they don’t stop both.
“Tonight the girls opened it up a little bit on the outside and I was really happy with out shot choices as well as setting our feet and stepping into our passes,” he continued. “That hasn’t been so clean in the past but tonight it was. We have been working on that and that makes me feel good when things we try to polish do get polished on the court.”
Even though the Trojans had so many 3-pointers, they were led in scoring by O’Daniel, a junior who had five field goals (only one 3-pointer) and seven free throws for a game-high 20 points.
“I think getting 20 points was nice, but I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” O’Daniel said. “If I didn’t get the passes on transition, and then all the stuff that they do on defense to pass it up to me to get the points, all I do is finish. But it was pretty great win. I think we worked together as a team really well. We had really good defense and high intensity too.
“That team was definitely very competitive,” she continued. “We knew they were a good team coming in so it was tough, but I think we overcame and we did good. I think the season has been going pretty good for us. At first it started kind of rough with a new environment and new coaching and some very talented freshman coming up and we didn’t know how to work with them very well, so I think that we have developed as a team and are starting to work very well together.”
Fearon is one of those freshman O’Daniel is referring too and she was the second leading scorer for the Lady Trojans with 17 points. Pohl, a junior, chipped in 15.
For Preble Shawnee, two players reached double figures led by Logan Hollon with 18 points and Jenna Lovely with 13.
“That’s a tough team over there,” Dean said. “They are a team in our district and I told the girls they are good and loaded with senior leadership. They have I think five seniors and this is their year. They return everybody and I believe had 18 wins last year and we were coming into their house. That is a tall order for my girls to take on and I feel like they did a pretty good job with it.
“O’Daniel had 20 points, Fearon with 17 and Pohl with 15 and I tell you what if you look at our scorers and our players over the last seven games it is always somebody else stepping up,” he continued. “We have consistency with several girls, but it is always another girl stepping up and I couldn’t be happier about that with these kids. But we still have a lot of work to do. We are not there yet. Our defense looked good tonight but there is still a lot of polishing I want to do on it.”
In addition to the scoring stats, Pohl had 7 steals and Garno had 5 steals as well as 9 assists for Arcanum.
“That’s what we have to see those turnovers and hard work from our defense,” Dean said. “Camille (Pohl) the first few games was doing all the hard work, but was not showing up on the scoreboard as much. I think she is starting to understand our concepts and our transition better, and so is (Madelyn) Fearon. She has really picked up her points.”
Arcanum returns to action at 2 p.m. on Saturday with a home game against Miami East, while Preble Shawnee travels to Carlisle for a 1:15 p.m. tip off on Saturday.
Score by quarters
Arcanum^23^12^17^14^-^66
Preble Shawnee^14^10^15^12^-^51
Individual scoring
Arcanum – Gracie Garno 2 0 5, Camille Pohl 5 2 15, Madelyn Fearon 4 6 17, Hailey Unger 1 2 5, Kayla O’Daniel 5 7 20, Taylor Gray 1 2 4. Totals: 18 19 66.
Preble Shawnee – Jenna Lovely 2 8 13, Brenna Woodard 4 0 8, Jasmine King 3 0 6, Kaylie Campbell 2 2 6, Logan Hollon 8 2 18. Totals: 19 121 51.
3-pointers: Arcanum 9 (Pohl 3, Fearon 3, Garno, H. Unger, O’Daniel), Preble Shawnee 1 (Lovely).
Records: Arcanum (5-2), Preble Shawnee (3-2)
