DARLINGTON — On a rainy, windy December night, the Darlington varsity girls’ basketball squad was concerned with only one thing — going at 100% the entire time. To that end, the Redbirds took down Fennimore on Tuesday, 51-25.
Three to two in the opening minutes was the only lead the Golden Eagles saw all night — it was also the closest the game would be, too. Following a balanced attack that saw four different Redbirds score six or more points, Darlington would go on a 28-9 scoring tear through the remainder of the half.
“I was happy with our start,” said Redbird head coach Brad Solberg. “We were able to dictate the way the game went.”
As the second half progressed, Fennimore and Darlington would go back and forth making baskets, but the Golden Eagles would never smell a gap closer than 16 points — 32-16 at about the nine minute mark. Once the final buzzer rang, Fennimore would end up losing, 51-25.
Scoring was a team affair for the Redbirds, with junior Aubrey McCarthy (12 points), freshman Kylie Butler (ten points), junior Jaidyn Evenstad (eight points), and junior Ava Hendrickson (six points) leading the scoring effort for Darlington on a night where the worst shooting percentage between the four of them was 50% — Butler with 4-8 from the floor, and the other three were shooting at least 66%, if not higher.
“Our bench played a lot of minutes and didn’t take a step back,” said Solberg. “It will help us down the stretch.”
Almost everyone from the Redbirds had a tally on the scoreboard as well, including four points from senior Cayla Golackson, two points from junior Alyza Johnson, senior Mady Wedig, freshman Sadie Goebel, senior Jaylyn Schwartz, and sophomore Lylah Norgard, and one point from freshman Maddie Gratz.
The players who didn’t score bunches of points helped in other ways as well. Golackson and Evenstad led the rebounding effort with five each (one offensively, four defensively). Gratz led the team in assists with three, while Wedig, Evenstad, and Golackson all contributed two.
On the Fennimore side of the ball, Rose French led the team in scoring with 12 points, Izzy Bender added four points, and Sophie Faulkner, Braycee Nelson, and Tess Kenney all tallied three points.
French was also the team leader in rebounds with eight (four offensively, four defensively), while Faulkner had six (one offensively, five defensively), Nelson tallied five (two offensively, three defensively), and Gwen Johnson had three (all defensively).
The Redbirds will have a week to prepare for their away conference matchup at Iowa-Grant (2-4) on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
