The Atlantic Girls basketball team held on to win a close 51-47 game at home on Saturday afternoon against the Creston Panthers. The Trojans offensive looked smooth as they had a 23-13 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to Makenna Schroeder hitting three triples and scoring 11 points. Atlantic tried to keep up the high percentage shooting in the second quarter but only managed to score seven with help from Lila Wiederstein as the Trojans would be up 30-18 going into the half.

In the second half Creston stuck to their zone defense and managed to make things interesting in the fourth quarter by going on a 14-4 run. Slicing an 18-point deficit into eight. A large part of that run was sparked by Panther Kadley Bailey who had back-to-back steals and layups. Creston continued to chip and forced the Trojans to take contested shots on the perimeter. Suddenly it was only a four-point lead for Atlantic with less than a minute to go. The Trojans next possession resulted in a heavily guarded Katrina Williams two point shot to ultimately give Atlantic a six-point buffer and the win.

Trojan head coach Dan Vargason was proud with the overall effort from Schroeder and Zoey Kirchhoff throughout the afternoon.

It was a balanced team effort for Atlantic with four players finishing in double figures. Schroeder led the Trojans with 15 points. Wiederstein added 10 points, Paytn Harter collected 10, and Williams chipped in 10. Regardless of the final score, coach Vargason acknowledged that a win is still something to be pleased with.

Atlantic improves to 6-4 on the season. Next up is a trip to Glenwood on Tuesday and it’s a game where Vargason expects his team to be fierce in finding ways to win.

The Panthers were led in scoring by Bailey with 16 points and fall to 2-7 on the year. The Panthers will stay on the road and head to Clarinda on Tuesday to take on the Cardinals.