BY CHARLES CHANEY

ANDOVER, Kansas — It’s not often the Andover Lady Trojans lose a regular season game but when they do, they respond with a vengeance.

After coming off their first regular season loss in almost two full years, they third-ranked Andover girls squad used their defense to beat their crosstown rivals, 58-23, rebounding from last week’s loss. 

The win moves Andover to 6-1 this season with a big game looming against Ark City on Friday. 

“We took that loss personal,” Andover head coach Hannah Alexander said. “Sometimes those losses can be a good thing for a team like us. I think it gets us re-focused. It wasn’t a bad loss, and Heights is a very respectable and solid team and it’s going to be very much like a team we play later in the season, so we wanted to use this game to definitely get back on track and start doing the little things.”

It was all done with defense. While they had some moments offensively, it was the Trojan defense that came calling, especially in the second and fourth quarters. It’s where Andover held ninth-ranked Andover Central to a combined 1 of 10 shooting from the field and forced seven turnovers. The Jaguars (4-3) only scored six points combined in the two frames.

quote from green on defense. 

Andover made more three-pointers (8) than the entire Jaguar offense made buckets (7). 

“We know we can do the little things,” senior Aliyah Green said. “Our biggest thing, especially at practice and then when we get into games like this, is just talking as much as we can and try to annoy the other team. We just really want to stay together because coming off our game against Heights, it was tough but as long as we stay together and talk, we’ll be fine.”

Fine is an understatement with how dominate their defense was on Tuesday night. 

They held the Jaguars to 24.1 percent from the floor and 1 of 14 from three-point range. 

“We want to get back to that gritty play and play with a little bit of swag,” Alexander said. “The girls stepped up and did that. We want to take people out of what they want to do and then we want our people to step up and hit their shots when they need. We wanted to allow our defense to speak and get our offense going and take pride in our defense.”

Andover never trailed as Grier Hand got the scoring going by canning a couple of 3s to start the game. While Central would push the defense early in the first quarter, cutting the lead down to 8-7 with 1:23 remaining in the quarter off an and-one from Juliah Bolden, it would be Hand, hitting her third three of the quarter that put the Trojans ahead, 16-7. 

From there, that helped push a run that would span until the final seconds of the half, when Taylin Tabor would finally score with 11 seconds remaining in the half. That would end a 20-1 run by Andover that was just interrupted by a free throw from Kelsey Barscewski. 

The Lady Trojans led 28-10 at the half. 

Andover would extend the run in the second half as Hand hit another three to start the third, then Green had back-to-back buckets, forcing a timeout and pushing the lead up to 25. 

Green’s gritty play as coach Alexander spoke about is why this team were able to be so dominate. She had a key play, falling out of bounds to get a loose ball, found a teammate for the bucket. It’s those little, tough plays, that were the difference. 

“She’s definitely the heartbeat of this team,” Alexander said of Green. “She does a lot of hustle things, and she brings the energy every night. I thought she hustled her little rear off tonight. I’m super impressed with her.”

Green said she just feeds off her teammates and tries to help where she can. 

“My team is so good about hitting threes and scoring, I try to do the little things, like getting rebounds, steals and saving the ball… stuff like that,” she said. “It’s so fun because I know every time I go for those balls, one of my teammates is waiting for me, talking to me, telling me where they’re and I can just get it back to them.”

It wouldn’t be until Lainey Tyner hit a 3-pointer midway through the quarter, cut the deficit to 37-13. 

That’s when Bella Bouddhara went to work. She had back-to-back buckets, to help push the Trojans over the 40-point mark. 

Katie Evans and Green combined to put the game into running clock territory after a 3-pointer from Evans and a layup from Green. 

Bouddhara finished with 15 points to lead all scorers. She scored nine of her 15 in the second half. The sophomore hit three 3-pointers in the game. Hand finished with 12 on four made 3s. 

Green finished with 14 points, nine in the second half as well. Evans finished with seven and Aneila Williams had six off the bench. 

For Andover Central, Tabor finished with seven to lead the Jaguars. 

For Andover and most of the state, with basically two weeks of games cancelled due to weather, the schedule will get a bit condensed. It’s important to get rest and put games away early. 

“We just want to put our foot on the pedal and go out there and finish,” Green said. “Not just so we can rest ,so we can get more girls in the game and get them experience. So, when we get to those games, where we’re playing 3-4-5 games in the span of a week, we can know it what it feels like, and we can have fresh bodies.”

Alexander said getting up and getting others rested and experience is huge. 

“Especially when you start playing back-to-back games, whether it’s state or tournaments, it’s huge,” she said. “It’s fun to see that reward out there and for them to out and get them, that’s what we’ve talked about.”

The rest will come in handy as they travel to Ark City on Friday night. The Bulldogs are eighth in Class 5A. They’re led by a group of players who’ve come a long way. They have a handful of seniors who were on the 2-18 teams as a freshmen. 

ANDOVER 58, ANDOVER CENTRAL 23

Andover               16            12            16            14—58
And. Central     8              2              9              4—23

Andover (6-1): 58

Bouddhara 3 (3) 0-0 – 15; Sullivan 0 1-2 – 1; Evans 2 (1) 0-0 – 7; Williams 3 0-0 – 6; Green 6 2-7 – 14; Hand 0 (4) 0-0 – 12; Christensen 1 1-2 – 3. TOTALS: 15-25 8-23 4-11 – 58.

Andover Central (4-3): 23

Tyner 0 (1) 0-0 – 3; Wilborn 0 2-2 – 2; Tabor 3 1-2 – 7; Converse 1 2-2 – 4; Barscewski 1 1-3 – 3; Wilson 0 1-2 – 1; Bolden 1 1-1 – 3. TOTALS: 6-15 1-14 8-12 – 23.