Last December against Panorama, senior Sierra O’Brien left the Guthrie Center gymnasium with a knee injury that claimed not only a few weeks of the season, but also her shooting accuracy. She regained that scoring ability last night, leading the Chargers to an opening night victory against the Audubon Wheelers, 40-31.
After the game head coach Dan Baker praised O’Brien for her resiliency, even after the practices leading up to the opener.
“I’m a little bit harder on her because I had a daughter that played for me and I was probably tougher on her than I was on anybody. Sierra and I became friends when we first moved here before I ever knew I was going to have anything to do with basketball. So I probably sometimes am a little bit harder on her but I kind of challenged her and, I hate to say it but, I had her in tears one night here last week. There’s two ways she could have went on that. She could’ve been mad and pouted and just gave up but she didn’t. She funneled it in the right direction and just had a whale of a ballgame tonight.”
O’Brien led all scores with fourteen points, eight of which came in the second half. Sophomore Kylie Young also had a career-high ten points in her first start for the gold and black. Senior Jadeyn Carrick finished with six points, while freshman Chloe Largent and junior Kennedy Young each had five.
The Chargers jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Wheelers went on a 9-0 run to claim their largest lead of the game in the first quarter. ACGC chipped away at the lead and regained it late in in the second quarter. They took a 20-19 lead in the the locker room at the half and never looked back as they outscored the Wheelers 20-12 in the second half.
Freshman Aleah Hermansen led the Wheelers with nine points, including two made three-pointers. Juniors Leah Subbert and McKenna Petersen added six each for Audubon. This is the first win in program history for ACGC over Audubon. They will have nearly two weeks off before their next regular season matchup at home against the Madrid Tigers.