Chickasaws sweep varsity DH from Comets before holiday break

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

NEW HAMPTON — The Charles City girls basketball team looked as if it had a good chance to go into the holiday break with a ‘W’ in the books.

Facing the New Hampton Chickasaws without NH’s star guard, junior Carlee Rochford who was second in the state in scoring (28.2 ppg) through six games before turning her ankle in a loss against Decorah, the Comets took a 23-20 lead at halftime and were up 35-34 going into the fourth quarter.

But a spell of cold shooting in the second half for the Comets helped open the door for the Chicakasaws, who defended their home court with a 46-40 victory in the first game of Tuesday’s Northeast Iowa Conference varsity doubleheader.

New Hampton junior Kandice Eggerich picked up the slack in the absence of Rochford in the second half as she led all scorers with 20 points.

Eggerich’s 3-point play put the Chickasaws up 30-29 with 3:30 left the third quarter — the first NH lead since the first quarter.

Comet junior Ava Ellis helped Charles City attain its first-half lead while draining three 3-pointers. Ellis would finish the night with 13 points.

Lydia Staudt’s 14 points led the Comets (0-6, 0-3), who will have to wait until next year for that first victory as they won’t be back in action until Jan. 3 when they host Saint Ansgar.

New Hampton, which probably welcomes the holiday break with the greater likelihood of having its resident scoring machine back for the next game (Jan. 3 vs. Waverly-Shell Rock), improved to 4-4 and 1-2.

* Full-court presses in basketball are akin to blitzes in football — both can be effective, but teams tend to make you pay for unleashing them if they have good court/field vision.

In the latter boys game, the Chickasaws were able to repeatedly break the Comets’ press which resulted in Christmas coming early for New Hampton junior Cael Laures.

Laures’s teammates “gift-wrapped” a sleigh worth of assists for easy layups while solving the press helping Laures score 14 points while the Chickasaws pulled away for a 56-48 win to cap the DH sweep.

Chickasaw junior Carter Steinlage, who was featured with Charles City senior Mario Hoefer during the Musial Awards airing Christmas Day on CBS and Paramount+, had 20 points to lead New Hampton (4-4, 2-1).

Comet junior Chase Low scored 20 points and had three blocked shots, and Hoefer scored 10 and had four steals for Charles City (3-4, 1-2), which will play in Decorah (Jan. 3) after the break.