Norah Berkenstock
HOPE — In only her second game starting for the Hauser girls basketball team, freshman Norah Berkenstock didn’t disappoint.
Berkenstock hit a big 3-point shot to end the third quarter and hit a key 3 to start the fourth quarter to help the Jets finish out the game in the fourth quarter to defeat Monrovia 60-55 Tuesday night.
“We’re all really excited about (the win) because we had lost a couple games before,” Berkenstock said. “It feels really good to win.”
Berkenstock finished with nine points, but top player Madelyn Poe shined as well for Hauser (8-6), finishing with a career-high 32 points.
“I really think that for our team, we really needed to have that,” Poe said. “We all needed to work together and win. I took my open lanes when I had them, and my shots were falling. It was a really good team win.”
Kyliegh Parrott also finished in double figures with 11 points.
The Jets moved the ball around offensively, giving the Bulldogs trouble defensively. The duo of Parrott and Poe scored 10 of Hauser’s first 12 points to give it a 12-7 lead. The Jets offense started to get a bit stagnant, and Monrovia began knocking down a few shots on the offensive end to pull ahead 17-15 after the opening quarter.
Hauser couldn’t buy a basket to start the second quarter, coupled with the Bulldogs getting a couple second-chance points on the offensive end allowed them to build onto the lead at 24-16. Parrott finally ended the near nine-minute field goal drought for Hauser with a couple of basket to close out the first half with the Jets trailing 24-21.
Poe eventually tied the game for Hauser at 27-27. However, the Bulldogs then picked up the tempo and a couple of transition baskets to go back up front 32-27. Hauser then picked up the pace itself offensively. The Jets finished the third quarter on a 13-3 run that was capped off with a Berkenstock 3 to go ahead 40-35.
“The big thing for (Berkenstock) is that she is getting more comfortable. She’s stepping up and playing significant minutes for us and played well. She’s got the confidence to knock those shots in sometimes and we got to tweak some thing on her, but she’ll be fine.” Hauser coach Chad Evans said. “I’m happy for the team. They all played in a very cohesive unit tonight.”
Monrovia came back to tie it at 40-40 early in the fourth until a Berkenstock 3-pointer gave the Jets the lead for the remainder of the game. With Hauser leading 49-42, it had a little bit of trouble closing out the game in the final minutes, but were able to break out from the full-court press with an Adrianna Musillami layup and free throws from Poe helped close out the game.
”With Norah filling that void, and Adrianna and Gabby Johns, they played very well defensively and rebounding. They played well tonight,” Evans said. “I was really proud of the way they play hard. In second half, they got better rebounding. I really happy with our rebounding tonight, that was key for us defensively in the second half. That was huge.”
