When Friday rolls around, the Turkey Valley Trojans may well turn into Kee High Hawk fans – at least for one night.
The Trojans and head coach Steve Hoffert remained in contention and are still alive for an Upper Iowa Conference crown, but they are going to need a little help from those Hawks.
Turkey Valley (13-5, 12-2) held Clayton Ridge to five second-half points – zero in the fourth quarter – en route to a 46-14 lockdown of the Eagles on the road in Guttenberg last Friday.
“I thought our defense was really good again. We continue to play really good team defense. It took us a while to get going offensively. We were finally able to penetrate their 1-2-2 zone in the second quarter,” said Hoffert.
With its 12-2 league mark, TV remains a game back of conference front-runner MFL MarMac (13-7, 13-1), who split the season series with the Trojans. Each team won a game on the other’s home floor. The Bulldogs played West Central (3-16, 2-12) this past Tuesday and conclude the regular season at third-place Kee (13-6, 11-3).
TV junior Addison Steinlage paced the Trojans with 14 points against the host Eagles. She was 6- for-15 shooting and came up with four steals.
Steinlage led all scorers with 20 points in a 43-42 loss at home versus Crestwood (11-7) on Monday, Jan. 27. Steinlage converted five buckets out of 11 attempts and grabbed seven rebounds. She nailed four 3-pointers in six tries.
Trojan sophomore forward Bella Stika scored eight points and snared 13 rebounds in the close loss to Crestwood. She also scored eight points and came up with 11 rebounds against Clayton Ridge (6-13, 3-10).
Hoffert, in his third season as head coach at TV, talked about the narrow defeat at the hands of the Cadets.
“We had our chances late but just couldn’t get the ball to go into the hole. These girls never give up, they just keep fighting,” said Hoffert.
Turkey Valley’s pressure defense is its bread and butter this winter as it leads the UIC in points allowed (32.3). TV is also second in league points scored (52.2) and leads the entire conference in point differential (19.9).
Stika leads the UIC in rebounds per game (13.1) and Steinlage is the conference’s fourth-best scorer (13.4 ppg).
Trojan sophomore center Ellaney Bodensteiner is the top free-throw shooter in the UIC with an almost 77 percent shooting clip. She’s 30-for-39 at the charity stripe this winter.
Crestwood 13 6 12 12 43
Turkey Valley 10 7 13 12 42
Scoring – Addison Steinlage 20; Bella Stika 8; Hazel Nieman 6; Annika Bodensteiner 4; Delaney Busta 4
Rebounds – Stika 13; Steinlage 7; Layni Schuchhardt 3; Busta 3; A. Bodensteiner 2; Ellaney Bodensteiner 2; Nieman 1; Assists – A. Bodensteiner 3; Nieman 3; Steinlage 2; Emersyn Hoffert 2; Schuchhardt 1; Stika 1; Steals – A. Bodensteiner 3; Stika 3; Steinlage 2; Busta 1; Nieman 1; Hoffert 1; E. Bodensteiner 1; Blocks – Busta 1
Turkey Valley 11 16 9 10 46
Clayton Ridge 3 6 5 0 14
Scoring – Steinlage 14; Stika 8; E. Bodensteiner 8; Busta 6; Hoffert 6; A. Bodensteiner 2; Schuchhardt 2
Rebounds – Stika 11; Hoffert 5; E. Bodensteiner 5; Nieman 4; Ella Ives 4; Schuchhardt 3; Steinlage 2; A. Bodensteiner 2; Busta 2; Makinley Lutgen 1; Brynlee Hayek 1; Assists – Steinlage 2; A. Bodensteiner 1; Stika 1; Nieman 1; Steals – Steinlage 4; Nieman 4; Hoffert 3; Schuchhardt 2; Stika 1; Busta 1; Miyah Byrne 1; E. Bodensteiner 1; Blocks – Hoffert 2; Steinlage 1; A. Bodensteiner 1; Busta 1; E. Bodensteiner 1
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