Van-Far's Mara Jensen was unstoppable all night for South Callaway girls basketball, as the Lady Bulldogs fell 39-21 to the Lady Indians Tuesday night in Mokane. It was the first time in 12 years South Callaway lost to Van-Far; the Lady Bulldogs won the last 11 meetings before Tuesday.
As the final score showed, both teams did well defending. Kelsey Wetherell led South Callaway's defense, notching seven steals and a rebound.
"She's one of our best defenders, and so we put her in position," South Callaway coach Daniel Burns said. "Just athletic. She's aggressive. She's young."
While the offense was hard to come by for the Lady Bulldogs, Reagan Arrowood did her part.
Arrowood finished the game with a team-high 11 points and made two wide-open 3-pointers, with her first coming from the top right of the arc in the second quarter and her second in the left corner during the fourth quarter. She also got it done inside by converting two layups.
"She's one of the returning starters from last year," Burns said. "Last year, she was a 3-point shooter. And this year, her role is expanded obviously because she's had to take the point guard role, which she's worked so hard in the offseason to take that role. She's done an excellent job with it. She's a great kid, works really hard.
"I thought there was a huge difference late in the first half (and) the second half -- she got more aggressive. She started attacking the rim. Defensively, she did a better job. Obviously, growing up."
McKenzie Laughlin -- who matched Van-Far's physicality -- was another South Callaway player that excelled in the loss. She collected five boards -- one being an offensive rebound -- and scored five points; when she got the offensive rebound, Laughlin was fouled and made both free throws.
"McKenzie, one of the hardest working girls on the team," Burns said. "They all work really hard. She's physical. She's ready. We put her on their big tonight, and they don't let her touch the ball. She fought the whole game; I don't think she came out at all. We're low on numbers, so the girls can't work them out. The effort and intensity she played with was awesome. She again started getting more comfortable as the game went on."
Laughlin made her only shot from the field in the third quarter, a mid-range floater.
While it looked like the Lady Bulldogs were shaking off their first game jitters throughout the contest, the Lady Indians were playing their second game of the season, and it showed.
Van-Far's Jensen and the team's 12-0 run between the end of the second and the beginning of the third quarter were the keys to their victory.
"Were undersized," Burns said. "I mean, you can see that we don't have a true big. We're not very tall. We have to be strategic in how we guard. We tried to limit (Jensen's) touches and did a pretty good job of doing that; four quarters is tough. So we kind of jumped in and out of different defenses to try and give them different works and keep them off balance. They went on that run, and we tried to switch things up. The girls did a good job making adjustments and got us out of it."
Jensen's size advantage and experience made it tough for South Callaway's young team. The senior scored 24 points (61.5% of the team's total points) and registered a double-double by recording 11 rebounds; she also had five steals.
"(Jensen's) athleticism," Burns said. "She's got size, but she doesn't just stay down in the post. She can handle the ball. She can play on the wing. She can take ball screens. She does a little bit of everything. She's like a stretch forward that it's hard to guard because you can't just double-team her down in the post; because she moves around all over the place."
It was an exciting night for South Callaway's fans regardless of the result as the Lady Bulldogs tipped off their season.
"We're excited about it," Burns said. "We knew we were young. We went through a run there with a lot of success. Since I've been here for about eight years, we've been very successful and very blessed. And we know you know with that comes some youth, some younger years. Our numbers were down; we're starting to get them back up now.
"Young, but I'm telling you, the group we have they're so much fun to coach. They play so hard. They love each other. They get along so well. It's a lot of fun, so I'll take that any day. And we'll get better."
South Callaway (0-1) stays on its home court for a matchup versus Wright City (2-0) at 6 p.m. Thursday in Mokane.
"They've got a guard that's tough to deal with," Burns said. "She does a lot of different things. She can play really well. She plays out in the post, so it's going to be a similar type of matchup where they have a really dominant scorer that we're going to have to account for. We got to knock down our shots and limit our turnovers more than we did (tonight)."