By Bobby Mathews, Sports Editor
CLAY — The Clay-Chalkville girls’ basketball team dropped its first game of the season to Chelsea, 33-20 here Tuesday night, November 9, 2021.
Chelsea’s Sydney Schwallie led all scorers with 15 points.
It was a tough night offensively for the Lady Cougars, who relied on a team full of sophomores and one freshman for their opening game. This wasn’t the team that Clay had envisioned taking the floor this season.
“We lost our 6-3 center before the season started,” Clay-Chalkville coach Kevin Conner said. “Really, we lost our two best players before the season began.”
Clay-Chalkville went scoreless through the much of the first period until Kameron Sanders scored by hitting the first of a one-and-one visit to the foul line. At the end of the first quarter, it was Chelsea 10, Clay-Chalkville 1.
It didn’t get much better in the second quarter, as Sanders scored every point for Clay-Chalkville, and the teams went into the locker rooms with the visitors ahead 16-5.
“Their pressure bothered us,” Conner said. “But one of the things I’m really proud of is the level of effort from our girls. They didn’t quit, they didn’t get down on themselves. They stayed in there and fought to get back in the game.”
The third quarter was when things began to turn around for the Lady Cougars, as they cut the lead to 19-15 and forced Chelsea to call a timeout.
“We got some momentum there, but turnovers really stalled that,” Conner said. “That’s something we’re going to have to work on. This team you saw tonight is essentially our junior varsity team trying to adjust and play at a varsity level.”
Kamoriah Gaines scored 9 for Clay-Chalkville, while Sanders had five, and Tyra Bynum and Brooklyn Phillips each scored three.