Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports  

SOLON – With four senior starters gone from last year the Solon lineup is filled with new names this season.

The players may be different this season but veteran Solon head coach doesn’t see much else changing for the Spartans who have won 32 games over the past two seasons.

“The good thing about it is in the last five years we don’t vary from what we do,” Smith said. “We might vary from who is in there but we aren’t going to change a lot depending on who we have we just have to have kids step up.”

In Friday’s season opener against Class 1A eighth-ranked Martensdale-St. Marys those new Spartan starters stepped up.

Returning all-stater Callie Levin had a game-high 25 points and Class 3A No. 13 Solon got at least four points seven other players in a 65-40 win over Martensdale-St. Marys.

Junior Hailey Miller had nine points and senior Hilary Wilson had seven points and 10 rebounds as the Spartans won their season opener for just the second time in the past five seasons.

“Coming into the year we knew we had graduated a lot of seniors so people were going to have new roles,” Levin said. “For girls like Hailey and Hilary they knew they that they had to step into a position and just be confident in themselves and they have done so good.”

Levin is the lone returning starter from last year’s Solon squad that finished 15-8.

She is surrounded in the starting lineup by three upperclassmen on a Solon team that isn’t young but lacks experience.

With juniors like Miller and Mia Stahle and Wilson stepping into larger roles this season Smith isn’t changing much.

Instead he is trusting the program.

“We talk about it all the time nothing is going to change, we do what we do,” Smith said. “We may have to make an adjustment here or there but we trust the program and we trust the kids.”

On Friday that worked well.

Seniors Sara Holtz and Kerrigan Lyons each added six points to help the Spartans pull away.

“It’s one thing to scrimmage on a Saturday and then play in front of pretty much a full house tonight against a rated team so there is a learning curve but we don’t change a whole lot,” Smith said. “It’s just getting used to the speed of the game.”

Solon methodically pulled away from a Martensdale-St. Marys team that won 23 games a year ago.

The Spartans led just 26-23 with 3:00 left in the opening half but close the second quarter on a 7-2 run.

Lyons started the run with a 3-pointer from the corner and Stahle capped it with a layup off a Martensdale-St. Marys turnover with three seconds left.

“I feel like all first games are a little crazy,” Levin said. “Coming into it we knew we had to give our best effort and we did that. We came out and worked hard and it paid off so we are going to keep going one win at a time.”

Solon opened the second half with a 5-2 run and led 44-31 after three quarters.

The Spartans put the game out of reach with a 13-3 run to open the fourth quarter.

“We were more calm and put together in the second half,” Wilson said. “We weren’t as nervous we just settled down on offense and talked more on defense. We were ready to go.”

Solon forced Martensdale-St. Marys into 24 turnovers and held the Blue Devils to 28 percent shooting.

Wilson had 10 rebounds, Levin had eight and sophomore Kobi Lietz and Miller each had five as the Spartans finished with a 42-36 rebounding edge.

“It’s going to be very important to get everyone involved and have some girls step up,” Wilson said. “They are really, really good. We have players that have played a lot of basketball that are ready to step up this year.”

Solon                                            21  12  11  21  –  65

Martensdale-St.-Marys        12  13   6    9   –  40

Solon (65) – Kobi Lietz 2-8 0-0 4, Addie Greene 2-4 0-0 4, Hailey Miller 4-10 0-5 9, Mia Stahle   2-5 0-0 4, Trea Eidahl 0-1 0-0 0, Sara Holtz 2-5 1-2 6, Callie Levin 8-17 7-8 25, Kerrigan Lyons 2-5 0-0 6, Hilary Wilson 3-7 1-2 7, Totals 25-62 9-17 65.

Martensdale-St. Marys (40) – Ellie Baker 0-1 4-4 4, Brynly German 8-15 8-11 24, Karson Oberender 0-1 0-0 0, Carolyn Amfahr 1-5 0-0 2, Emily Hughes 1-1 0-1 2, Hadley Pearson 1-3 0-2 2, Sophia Shannon 0-7 0-0 0, Campbell German 1-10 4-8 6, Totals 12-43 16-26 40.

3-point field goals – SOL 6-28 (Lietz 0-5, Greene 0-2, Miller 1-3, Stahle 0-2, Eidahl 0-1, Holtz 1-4, Levin 2-6, Lyons 2-4, Wilson 0-1), MSM 0-6 (B. German 0-1, Oberender 0-1, Shannon 0-2, C. German 0-2). Rebounds – SOL 42 (Wilson 10), MSM 36 (B. German 10). Turnovers – SOL 18, MSM 24. Total fouls – SOL 22, MSM 14. Fouled out – SOL (Wilson). Technical fouls – None.

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