Zumwalt South Opens Season With Win Against Rival Lady Lions

The Lady Bulldog basketball team turned in an impressive debut in a Gateway Athletic North Conference contest against the Fort Zumwalt East Lady Lions last night at . 

The Lady Bulldogs trounced the Lady Lions 54-31. Sophomore Madison German led all South scorers with 13 points, junior Claire Johnson had 10 and freshmen Abby Modaff and Katie Lamkie threw in nine and eight points respectively. 

“This was our first test,” South coach Mike Schneider said. “We weren’t sure how we were going to take the floor tonight. We had two sophomores and two freshmen which saw a lot of time. It’s important that they got their feet wet right away.” 

South built a 5-0 lead early in the game behind a field goal from Lamkie and a 3-pointer from German. The Lady Bulldogs continued to build a lead throughout the first quarter. German’s three point play at the 3:36 mark made the score 15-3. South led 17-5 at the end of the first quarter and 29-17 at halftime. 

South continued to dominate in the second half, as it outscored East 10-6 in the third quarter and 15-8 in the fourth quarter. 

“We tried to open the game running a bit and I think we did a good job of that in the beginning but then our youth got to us,” Schneider said. “At the end of the second half we figured things out.”  

East coach David Biesenthal said injuries impacted his team’s performance. 

“Since we have some girls out, we're trying to put things together in bits and pieces,” he said. “We have some time off to get healthy and then we’ll be a totally different ball club.” 

Nicole Taylor, a starter, was out with an ankle injury, said Biesenthal. Biesenthal said Taylor was injured last week in practice 

“This is the first game of the season and the jitters are there,” Biesenthal said. “You don’t know if what you’ve been working on in practice is going to take hold in a game. I think the girls gave it everything they had. They didn’t stop fighting.”