Girls Basketball Bounces Back With Salem Rout

The Lady Eagles (7-14) snapped their losing drought on Friday, Feb. 14. After dropping nine of their last ten games, Sullivan rebounded with a 70-33 rout over Salem (4-18). They led 16-0 after three minutes of play, 46-18 at halftime and 67-33 to start the fourth quarter.

Before beating the brakes off the Lady Tigers, head coach Jordan Flora’s message for Sullivan was to “play loose” and “have fun.”

Earlier in the week, the Lady Eagles had fallen 56-19 to Union (12-8) and 56-28 to St. James (17-5). They aimed to bounce back with a statement against a district opponent. Flora stated, “Obviously, [in] our last, you know, three or four games, we played some tough teams, and we had some challenges. But tonight, it was more or less, just come out and do what we do... It’s not worrying about them. We gotta come out and play hard, execute the game plan, have confidence and shoot the ball. I mean better [than we have] because we’ve been struggling offensively.”

Sullivan has had recent troubles at the net, falling to teams they could not catch up to on the board. It was a different story against Salem, as the Lady Eagles scored their highest total since 2022.

Flora was proud to see his players step up and knock in some big shots. “They got into the lane and actually finished [their] layups tonight, which was huge for us.” He explained. “Honestly, I don’t think we played anything different than what we normally have. We just made shots tonight, so hopefully, we can continue building that when we go into New Haven and Pacific next week.”

The coach praised Molly Lohden for playing a pivotal role in the win.  The 5’3 senior dropped thirteen points on the Lady Tigers. 

He also said his entire team was firing on all cylinders Friday night. Kynlee Peterson dominated with 13 points, Cora Shetley splashed nine and Lily Schmuke sank eight. Karlee Head, Olivia Barton and Katie Miller tied for seven points. Then, Ava Hayes swished in four and Ella Kirk drained two.