Hayenga, Weg lead WHS girls to 90-66 win over JCC
Dec. 15—WORTHINGTON — Olivia Hayenga scored 33 points with six assists and eight steals, and Ellie Weg tallied 20 points with 18 rebounds as the Worthington Trojans girls basketball team thwarted visiting Jackson County Central Tuesday night, 90-66.
The Trojans led all the way, jumping out to an 8-0 lead at the starting gate as Weg and Hayenga each scored four points. Leading 40-29 at halftime, Worthington allowed JCC to get to within 55-52 in the second half but no closer. With a little more than six minutes to go in the game, it was a comfortable 71-57 margin.
The win pushed Worthington to 5-0 on the season while dropping the Huskies to 3-2, and it highlighted the basketball education of Weg, a 6-0 junior center. At the beginning of the season, head coach Eric Lindner said he wanted to see Weg become a true post player. And she has, perhaps even sooner than either of them expected.
"What you like with Ellie is she's always square and balanced. She's never leaning, she's always balanced. So when she gets contact, she always has her base," Lindner said. "She never gets herself out of position for rebounding."
With Weg consistently pulling down boards, the Trojans out-rebounded JCC 34-30 as a team. And her ability to score was just as impressive as her rebounding on Tuesday.
She has developed a very nice short jumper. She has good touch when not using the backboard and she uses the backboard well, too.
"Since last year it's been a whole different aspect of the game. I have a lot more confidence on the court," Weg explained about her improvement. "Something clicked in me this season, and I realized I needed to get going. And I got going."
Hayenga, always an offensive threat from anywhere on the floor, scored 17 points in the first half and 15 in the second half. Her athleticism displays itself in many ways.
Tuesday's win wasn't particularly smooth, however. Several mistakes were made, and some of them self-imposed. Sometimes the Trojans were too loose with the ball, sometimes they attempted unwise passes. But they took advantage of 26 JCC turnovers while making 15 of their own.
"The problem that we have sometimes is to not mentally dwell on mistakes," said Lindner. "It sometimes seems that they get to where they get numb, worrying about mistakes. ... When kids lose their mental focus, they make more mistakes."
Of course, the Trojans did plenty good things, too.
"When we did get the ball high, we attacked off the dribble," Lindner said.
The Trojans also got 12 points off the bench by Dasia Potter and another 10 points from Tarren Spartz. As a team, they dished out 28 assists. Brooklyn Scheitel-Taylor accounted for 12 of them.
Jackson County Central's two outstanding players, senior Sadie Voss and junior Madi Farmer, scored 44 of the Huskies point total, with Voss getting 24 and Farmer 20. Voss hit four 3-point shots and Farmer converted 14 of 15 free throws.
Jackson County Central 29 66
Worthington 40 90
JACKSON COUNTY CENTRAL (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Farmer 2-0-14-20, Voss 4-4-4-24, Haren 1-1-0-5, G.Wenzel 0-0-2-2, Cother 1-1-0-5, K.Wenzel 0-3-2-8, Rowe 0-1-0-2. Totals 8-10-22-66.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) — Scheitel-Taylor 0-0-1-1, T.Spartz 0-5-2-10, Hayenga 0-16-1-33, E.Weg 0-9-2-20, Beckmann 2-1-1-9, Potter 1-4-1-12. Totals 3-35-8-90.
