The West Delaware girls basketball team opened their 2007-08 season on a good note, defeating Center Point-Urbana 51-35 on Tuesday and Benton Community 52-51 on Friday.

After a close first quarter ended with the Hawks up 12-11, WD pulled ahead to outscore the Pointers 13-4 in the second quarter, giving them a 25-15 lead at the half.

CPU kept the scoring closer in the third and fourth quarters, but couldn’t pull out ahead. The Hawks led 36-25 at the end of the third and closed out the game stomping the Pointers 51-35.

Senior Ashley Hood led the Hawks in scoring with 16 points, including four three-pointers. Emily Heffernen nailed 14 points, Joslyn Sailer recorded eight points and Sara Heffernen added six.
Kayla Vaske had seven assists.

Emily Heffernen recorded 13 rebounds in the game while Joslyn Sailer snagged eight.

Following the Tuesday road trip to Center Point, the Hawks hosted the Bobcats of Benton Community on Friday.

Ashley Hood started out the game sinking a three-pointer for WD. The first quarter was a little rough for the Hawks, with turnovers giving Benton an advantage. But the Hawks stayed aggressive and had a lead at the end of the first, 12-11.

The Hawks kept up the hard work and went to the locker room at the half with a 25-21 lead over the Bobcats.

Joslyn Sailer added eight points in the third quarter for the Hawks, and good defense kept WD in the lead 41-36 with the remaining quarter left.

With three and a half minutes left in the game, Benton took just their second lead of the night, jumping ahead of the Hawks 48-49.

Ashley Hood and Kayla Vaske each added a bucket after an additional Bobcat score, and put WD in the lead 52-51 with one minute to go.

Following their clutch shots, Hood and Vaske ended up on the ground fighting a Benton player for the ball, and getting the jump ball for WD with 24 seconds remaining. After successive timeouts from each team, ad additional jump ball went to the Bobcats, and threatened the Hawks’ lead.

With just five seconds remaining in the game, and the Bobcats within about 15 feet of a victory, senior Kayla Bries came out of nowhere to steal the ball, and the victory, from Benton. The Hawks re-corded their second victory of the season, 52-51.

The Bobcats were all over Sara Heffernen all night, giving her the opportunity to make six of eight free throw attempts. She recorded ten points total, while Emily Hefferenen was lead scorer with 12 points. Hood and Vaske weren’t far behind, with nine points each, and Sailer with eight points, all coming in the third quarter.

The girls will travel to Maquoketa tonight, Tuesday, Dec. 4, and have another road trip Friday when they go to Western Dubuque.

WD vs. CPU
FG: WD 19-57 33%; CPU 14-44 32%
FT: WD 9-14 64%; CPU 4-16 25%
Assists: WD 17 (Kayla Vaske 7, Ashley Hood 5, Joslyn Sailer 2, Kayla Bries 1, Emily Heffernen 1, Sara Heffernen 1)
Rebounds: WD 38 (E. Heffernen 13, J. Sailer 8, Hood 5, Kayla Gibbs 3, Bries 2, S. Heffernen 2, Vaske 2, Rebeka Hahn 1, Emily Oleson 1, Stephanie Sailer 1)
Individual scoring: Hood 16, E. Heffernen 14, J. Sailer 8, S. Heffernen 6, Vaske 4, Bries 3

WD vs. Benton
FG: WD 20-50 40%; Benton 20-53 38%
FT: WD 10-16 63%; Benton 9-14 64%
Assists: WD 15 (Hood 6, Bries 3, Gibbs 3, S. Heffernen 2, Vaske 1)
Rebounds: WD 32 (J. Sailer 12, S. Heffernen 7, Gibbs 3, E. Heffernen 3, Hood 3, Vaske 3, Bries 1)
Individual scoring: E. Heffernen 12, S. Heffernen 10, Hood 9, Vaske 9, J. Sailer 8, Gibbs 4

The 2007-08 season didn’t start out ideally for the West Delaware boys basketball team, losing to Center Point-Urbana on Tuesday, 48-59, and Benton Community on Friday, 65-68.

Junior Ben Lechtenberg sunk the first two shots of the 2007-08 season for the Hawks, and by the end of the first quarter, WD was sitting with a five point lead over the Pointers, 19-14. Sophomore Taylor Heinrichs recorded nine of those 19 points.

Both teams scored 14 points in the second quarter, so the Hawks went to the break leading 33-28.

The Pointers picked things up the second half of the game and outscored the Hawks by six in the third quarter. They took their first lead of the game when they went up on the Hawks 41-42 with two minutes left in the third. At the end of the third quarter, CPU led 43-44.

CPU scored six points in the fourth quarter before the Hawks answered back with a bucket.

A timeout was taken by West Delaware with four and a half minutes left, but the Pointers weren’t going to back down. They kept the scoring up and only allowed the Hawks to score five points in the final quarter of the game. CPU got the victory, 48-59.

Lechtenberg and Heinrichs were leading scorers for the Hawks, recording 14 points each.
Lechtenberg also grabbed 11 rebounds, while Derek Klein snagged seven.

The Hawks played a close game against Benton Community on Friday, but came up just short of a victory as the Bobcats won 65-68.

The Hawks led at the end of the first quarter 22-15, and kept their lead going into halftime 35-31.

The Bobcats must’ve had some halftime motivation, because they came out aggressive and outscored the Hawks in the third quarter by seven points. The fourth quarter started with the Bobcats in the lead, 50-53.

Scoring was set even at 15 points by each team in the fourth quarter, but Benton had already clinched a lead that gave them the victory.

West Delaware shot a 59 percent field goal percentage (27-46) in the contest, while Benton hit just 45 percent of their shots (25-55).

Chris Crawford and Seth Engelken each recorded 17 points for the Hawks, while Ben Lechtenberg added 15. Crawford also added 10 assists, while Lechtenberg pulled down eight rebounds.

The Hawk boys will host the Maquoketa Cardinals on Tuesday and Western Dubuque on Friday.

WD vs. CPU
FG: WD 21-56 38%; CPU 24-44 55%
FT: WD 4-10 40%; CPU 9-18 50%
Assists: WD 12 (Chris Crawford 7, Lucas Kafer 2, Seth Engelken 1, Derek Klein 1, Ben Lechtenberg 1
Rebounds: WD 32 (Lechtenberg 11, Klein 7, Engelken 5, Heinrichs 4, Kafer 2, Crawford 2, Jordan Mangold 1)
Individual scoring: Lechtenberg 14, Heinrichs 14, Klein 7, Engelken 6, Crawford 4, Mangold 3

WD vs. Benton
FG: WD 27-46 59%; Benton 25-55 45%
FT: WD 7-18 39%; 10-21 48%
Assists: WD 25 (Crawford 10, Lucas Kafer 5, Klein 4, Engelken 3, Heinrichs 1, Ryan Gaffney 1, Lechtenberg 1)
Rebounds: WD 26 (Lechtenberg 8, Crawford 5, Kafer 3, Heinrichs 3, Matt Walters 3, Klein 2, Engelken 1, Gaffney 1)
Individual scoring: Crawford 17, Engelken 17, Lechtenberg 15, Heinrichs 6, Kafer 4, Klein 4, Walters 2