Maidens b-ballers continue to assert dominance over opponents

ST. IGNATIUS — The Ronan High School girls basketball team has maintained its unblemished record in its Class B Western conference opener against Mission High School.

Maidens’ Coach Ron Hanson, whose team is now 5-0 with a 1-0 conference record, said he felt winning the conference road game against the Lady Bulldogs was “important.”

“Every conference game is really important when you throw in a couple of new things, and especially on the defensive end for Mission,” Hanson said. “We got a few transition buckets and really kind of got things rolling. It was nice to get a good start and the girls just kept on rolling.”

Against Eureka, some of the Maidens’ weaknesses were exposed in their 71-59 victory over Eureka.

“We’ve seen some really good things and struggled last night in our games,” Hanson said. “Last night was probably the weakest game we’ve played so far. We have to work on adjusting some things that Eureka was able to execute against us last night, and we didn’t shoot the ball well.”

Hanson said he felt his team has gained some significant experience.

“We are probably in better shape than we were last year,” Hanson said. “We are doing some nice things offensively and making some good adjustments. We are tweaking our defense a little bit. We have to do a better job on the boards but a win is a win.”

Hanson said the Eureka game was “weird.”

“It seemed like we were in slow motion,” Hanson said. “Eureka hadn’t played a game in over a week, and they had fresh legs and we didn’t. They are a scrappy group and very well-coached. They seem to get better every time they play us. I have to give the coach credit. He has those girls ready for us.”

Hanson has seen a “significant improvement” from last year’s Maidens team.

“Being a year older with our main kids, we are getting better as a team with our big three coming back,” Hanson said. “We have young ones that are getting playing time this week. Last night we just got into some foul trouble. Some of our younger players had to step up, give up some big minutes and they did.”