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Mitchell drops season opener

Loggers fall 49-28 to Harper Hornets

Lon Austin

December 06, 2012

At times, the Mitchell Loggers looked good, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 49-28 to the Harper Hornets in the season opener for both teams.

“We played well for about three and a half quarters then ran out of steam,” said head coach Tim Foster.

The Loggers led 6-5 at the end of the first quarter, but Harper took control late in the second period. The Hornets took a 19-13 lead into the half, then the two teams played even in the third quarter. Harper finally pulled away with a 19-point fourth period.

Farrell Fox led the Loggers with 12 points while Miranda Holt finished with eight.

Harper’s Kinzee Chandler finished with 24 points to lead all scorers.

Foster was pleased with the defensive job that Jenna Perry-Zapara did on Chandler, who was all league last season, despite the fact that she did the bulk of the Hornet’s scoring.

“Zapara did a pretty good job,” he said. “But our defensive rotations weren’t as good as they should have been and we gave up a lot of easy buckets in the fourth quarter.”

The Loggers currently have just seven healthy players and Foster believes that was a factor in the game.

“We only had seven healthy girls and two of those were first-year players, so conditioning and experience played a factor,” he said. “But I was pleased with our effort and intensity.”

The game was part of the Huntington Invitational Basketball tournament.

Mitchell was scheduled to play Huntington in the consolation round the next day. However, Huntington has just four girls out for basketball.

So instead of playing a girls game, the Loggers suited a boy on their team and played a JV boys game against Huntington’s JV boys team, which included the four girls and one freshman boy.

Although the game will not count on Mitchell’s record the Loggers came away with a 35-33 win.

“We outscored them 10-3 in the fourth quarter,” Foster said. “It was a big win for us mentally after losing several games last season by five points or less.”

Perry-Zapara had a career high 16 points for the Loggers while Holt finished with eight.

Mitchell is back in action today as they compete in the first round of the North Lake Invitational Basketball Tournament.