ELDRED – The Eldred Yellowjacket girls’ basketball team played in just their second game of the season Friday night, losing to the visiting S.S. Seward Institute by the score of 52-22.

Because of weather cancellations and the lack of other teams in their class (D), games have been hard to come by this year. This reality forced the Eldred girls to play up a class in order to get this game under their belt.

It was a learning experience for the Yellowjacket girls. They were pressured right from the start by the visiting Spartans’ full court press and fell behind quickly. It took the majority of the first half for the Eldred girls to consistently get the ball past the half court line without turning the ball over. But once across, their work was only beginning. The Seward girls identified the Yellowjackets offensive scheme and would collapse every time Eldred would try to get the ball down in the paint. With all the Spartan girls down around the ball, it seemed impossible for the Yellowjackets to get the ball to the open person, resulting in a turnover taking a bad shot.

Eldred’s struggles on offense, was only exasperated by Sewards’s proficiency on offense; where they shot at high percentages, both in the field and at the line. Especially, the Spartan’s Kayla Valenti who had the hot hand, making four 3-point pointers on her way to 30 points to finish the game.

For the Yellowjackets, despite addressing their issues with ball control and managing to navigate their offense effectively enough to create some decent shooting opportunities, they continued to struggle to put the ball in the net.

It was a tough situation for Eldred, but there were some positives to take away.  Victoria Ryman’s strong play on the court, led the Yellowjacket girls in scoring with 8 points.