Iowa Prep Girls’ Basketball: Central DeWitt has few hiccups in 2-0 start

The Central DeWitt Sabers girls' basketball team has started the season 2-0, but the record might be slightly deceiving.

The Sabers eked out a six-point victory over the Iowa City High Little Hawks (0-2) on Nov. 21.

“That was a good first game for both schools, and it was a good test,” Central DeWitt coach Ron O’Brien said. “We played against a bigger school from a really tough conference.”

In the season opener, Central DeWitt committed more turnovers (16) than assists (6) or steals (13), and shot 29.5% from the field.

“We need to reduce the number of turnovers; part of that is because of our up-tempo style that we play,” O’Brien said.

In addition, the undersized roster was outrebounded 48-25.

“Rebounding is one of our biggest challenges this year,” O’Brien said. “It’s something that we have got to focus our attention to on both ends of the floor.”

Despite those difficulties, Central DeWitt regrouped and held off the Little Hawks with a 17-8 fourth-quarter run.

“We thought we responded well — we got down after our third-quarter lead, but we were able to rally in the fourth quarter,” O’Brien said. “That was a testament to the girls.”

This Mississippi Athletic Conference team is coming off a dominant 68-37 road win on Tuesday night against the winless Assumption Knights (0-3).

Central DeWitt forced 30 turnovers and only allowed one made 3-pointer by the Knights (1 for 14).

“It was nice to get a win on the road to start MAC play,” O’Brien said. “We came up pretty strong defensively. We were able to shut them down and I was pretty happy with how we played.”

As for the 30 forced turnovers, O’Brien praised his Sabers’ swarming defense.

“We really can turn it up on just our half-court defense,” O'Brien said. “We really did a good job of denying ball reversals and putting pressure on the ball all night.”

Junior guard Lauren Walker continued from where she left off from last season. Following an all-state, all-district and first-team all-conference sophomore year, Walker poured in 31 points on 11 of 25 shooting in the win over Iowa City.

“She is our go-to scorer,” O’Brien said. “She has had a really good start to the season. We rely on her a lot. Walker is probably the most consistent offensive threat on our team.”

O’Brien, in his second year at the helm, is proud of the strides his Sabers have taken on the defensive side of the ball so far.

“I think we have really done a good job defensively, especially against Assumption,” O’Brien said. “The defense has gotten better each game since our scrimmage prior to the season. We are playing with confidence right now, and this is going to help us continue to grow as the season goes.”

The Sabers continue MAC play with three games in the next eight days. Central DeWitt travels to Clinton (0-2, 0-1) to face the River Queens on Friday night at 7:30. After that, they host the Davenport Central Blue Devils (0-2, 0-1) on Tuesday before traveling to North Scott (0-1, 0-0) to challenge the Lancers on Dec. 8.

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