By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM — The Lady Trojans had a chance to see one of Division IV’s best on Jan. 31. The Arcanum High School girls basketball team lost to the 18-2 Marion Local High School girls basketball team, 44-22. The Lady Flyers are a one seed in their district.

Head coach Abbey Moore said this is the perfect time to play a great team like Marion Local. It’s almost like playing an early tournament game.

“I wouldn’t want to have this game any other time. This is a great time to play a game like that to prepare us for the tournament,” Moore said.

Arcanum was down 18-7 after the first quarter. For Marion Local, Avae Unrast had 12 points in the quarter with two three pointers made.

The Lady Trojans were struggling against the Marion Local defense. At times the full-court press gave them problems. But once they could beat the press, the half-court defense gave them problems.

The defense started playing better from the second quarter on. Moore said they switched up defenses to keep the Lady Flyers guessing on offense.

At halftime, Arcanum was down 26-12. In the first half, Marion Local was doing a great job of rebounding and stealing some extra possessions. The Lady Trojans still couldn’t find an answer on offense.

Things didn’t get better for the offense in the third quarter. Arcanum scored three points in the third quarter, all on free throws. They did work to get open looks or get some transition offense going, but couldn’t get the ball to fall in.

Moore said at times they weren’t strong with the ball or were dribbling with a purpose, which led to turnovers. But, they were able to get some good possessions against the strong Marion Local defense.

“We got to remember those moments where we had good possessions against a team like that and move forward with that confidence,” Moore said.

In the fourth quarter, Arcanum’s hard work on offense paid off. They started to get some shots to fall in. But, it wasn’t enough to get back into the game.

After the defense gave up 18 points in the first quarter, they held Marion Local to single digit points in each quarter. Unrast had eight points the rest of the game. Moore said senior Kaitlyn Toy did a great job playing man-to-man defense on her.

The Lady Trojans fought hard during the game, but couldn’t overcome the missed shots on offense.

Unrast led all scorers with 20 points. Sophomore Alexis Gibbons led Arcanum with 11 points.

The Lady Trojans are now 7-13 with a 6-4 conference record. They host Newton on Feb. 2 for their last home game and then travel to Carroll on Feb. 4 to end the regular season.

Moore said they are going to play the rest of those game like they don’t have any more.

“We got to get into that tournament mindset. We got to do that now. I’m really looking forward to the tournament,” Moore said.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].