Hot start lifts Storm past Lady Eagles

CHAPPELL – Creek Valley took control early on in Tuesday's first-round tournament game against Garden County.

The third-seeded Storm scored 17 points before the sixth-seeded Lady Eagles got their first bucket of the night in a 61-35 victory in the first round of the Minuteman Activities Conference Tournament. Creek Valley moves on to face second-seeded Leyton, a 47-23 winner over Banner County, at 8 p.m. Thursday at Sidney Middle School.

Creek Valley coach Trevor Korte said his team is overjoyed to move on to the semifinals.

"We came into this pretty much losing all of our starters from last year, so we had to just rebuild everything," he said. "This is a great start for us. We're hoping to do well on Thursday against (Leyton) and hopefully move on into Saturday and show what we've got."

Jessie Straber, a junior, got the team off to a strong start in the game. She scored the first six points on Tuesday and led the team with 28 points on the night. She scored 12 of the Storm's first 19 points of the game and had 18 in the first half.

"Driving was our key," she said. "I think we came out strong, played tough defense on our 2-3. We didn't let them take very many shots and got a lot of steals, and that gave us the advantage, I think. Our shooting is probably what won us the game there."

Payje Misegadis added to the game-opening run with a layup and free throw, while Joey Straber added a jumper for an 11-0 lead. After back-to-back Jessie Straber layups, Misegadis ended the 17-0 run with a jumper with 1:18 left in the opening quarter.

Korte said the big run to open the game allowed his team to work on some things as the game went on.

"It let us settle in, gave us a little bit more breathing room to make adjustments and work on some things that we've been trying to put in, but we just weren't sure about tonight," he said. "It was a little extra breathing room right off the top. It was a great start for us."

One of the things that the Storm worked on early in Tuesday's game was a newly installed press. The press forced the Lady Eagles into several turnovers and gave the Storm several fast break scoring opportunities.

Jessie Straber said the press was "pretty successful" for its initial trial.

"We just started that press (Monday) night," she said. "It was our first time every running it against another team, so it was a little rough, but it got there eventually."

Jessie Straber continued to have the hot hand scoring to start the second quarter, with six of Creek Valley's first eight points in a quarter-opening 8-0 run. Jordyn Koenen also had a jumper in the run. Garden County slightly closed the gap late in the quarter, but Creek Valley held a 31-14 lead at halftime. The Storm outscored the Lady Eagles 30-21 in the second half.

In addition to Jessie Straber's 28 points, Misegadis scored 13 and Samantha Schmid added five points for Creek Valley. Courtney Stegman led Garden County with 19 points.

Jessie Straber said Tuesday's win means a lot to the team, which hopes to make a deep run into the tournament.

"It means a lot because we haven't gotten first in MAC in a long time, and I think we have a really good shot this year," she said.