Lindsey Smith, gazette.com, February 22, 2019
Ashten Prechtel’s final high school game was not exactly what she envisioned.
The McDonald’s All-American led the Discovery Canyon girls’ basketball team by averaging more than 55 percent of the team’s total points through the regular season. But midway through the third quarter of a Class 4A second-round game against The Classical Academy, it was clear Prechtel was off her game.
Early in the third Prechtel apparently injured her right hand, keeping her off the court for a majority of the second half.
The absence of the team’s all-around player allowed the Titans to use their aggressive defense to claim a 49-35 win over Discovery Canyon.
I wish I could have stayed healthy through the game, I feel like it would have been a different result had that happened,” Prechtel said. “It was so hard to sit out. I tried to go back in but I couldn’t shoot or do anything. I didn’t want to think it, but right when I got hurt around then I had the feeling this would be my last game.”
With Prechtel on the bench, TCA capitalized on offensive rebounds in the third quarter - typically a difficult feat against DCC’s 6-foot-5 center. From there senior Autumn Boyles went to work, putting up 12 points in the second half to give the Titans a nice cushion.
“With (Prechtel) out we controlled the other girls and picked up our offense in the second half,” said TCA coach Frank Haist. “It was an ugly game a little bit, but it was our first game in the playoffs, sometimes that happens.”
Despite the injury, Prechtel entered the game a few times through the second half and scored three points - all off free throws. She was 0-for-3 from the field and 3-for-8 from the line. Prechtel led the Thunder at halftime with 12 points. She spent her time on the DCC bench icing her hand.
Prechtel said she is not sure what exactly happened, or the extent of the injury, but she plans to have it checked out.
DCC coach Heath Kirkham suspects it is broken.
“It’s one of those things that sucks and I wish that we could be back on Monday but I just am looking towards the future,” said Prechtel, who will play basketball at Stanford next year. “I know this isn’t my last game ever, and making sure my hand heals is the most important thing right now.”
But despite Prechtel’s absence Kirkham was proud of the fight in his team through the second half.
“We’ve had so many injuries, lost one of our teammates,” said Kirkham, referencing the loss of junior guard Avory Kvale, who died in a car crash with fellow DCC student Kaden Currier in December. “We’ve gone through so much tremendous adversity this season and it’s been unbelievable. These girls have been stepping up all year long.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a team that has gone through what they’ve had to go through, and to come out tied for second in the conference and win a playoff game — I’m just so proud of this team.”
The Discovery Canyon girls’ team sported pink scrunchies and blue shoelaces in memory of Kvale and Currier.
Prechtel finished with 15 points, followed by nine by Mackenzie Seitz. Tuesday Prechtel broke the state rebound record with 1,322 career boards heading into Friday's second-round game. She also had 69 double-doubles before Friday, ranking her second all-time in Colorado behind Mesa Ridge's Kylee Shook.
“We wanted to come out and prove that we could do it,” Prechtel said. “After everything that we’ve faced I think we just all really wanted it, and it was just unfortunate circumstances.”
TCA will move on to play No. 2 Holy Family in the third round. Holy Family punched its ticket to the round of 16 with a 61-26 win over No. 34 Glenwood Springs.
“We’ve been out of our shooting groove for a few games, so we’re hoping it comes back against Holy Family,” Haist said. “We had some open looks that just didn’t fall today, especially in the first half. You have to have a little bravado, a little strut and confidence when you shoot and I thought we did that in the second half.”
Boyles led TCA with 16 points, followed by Kaitlin Walters with 12.
No comments:
Post a Comment