ALTON – Basketball has steadily grown as a popular sport throughout the world. The international success of the National Basketball Association has helped grow the game to the point where it has become a popular sport on the international scene.
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The Marquette Catholic girls team took on an under-18 girls team from the Youth Sports Lions club of Antwerp, Belgium, Wednesday morning as part of a six-game shootout hosted by the Gateway Under-17 boys team at Marquette's gym, the the Explorers pulling away in the second half after holding an 18-16 halftime lead to defeat the Lions 47-32.
“Our girls have been playing a lot this summer,” said Marquette girls assistant coach Don Halling. “The girls have more experience playing together right now; the first half was close, we were up only two at the half and that had to do with the fact we were having trouble scoring. They play good pressure defense, and as you saw the second half, we played good pressure defense full-court, but when you're not scoring, it's hard to get into that.
“Luckily, at the start of the second half, they sat in that zone and we got a couple of buckets quick and got our pressure defense going; that's where we were able to kind of pull away and make it a 10-12 point game; it stuck that way.”
The Explorer offense in the second half helped them to seal the win. “We played a lot better offense in the second half; a lot of that comes from our defense,” Halling said.
“It's the first game we played here in the States,” said Lions coach Bart Van Bouwels of the game, the opening of a 15-day American tour both the boys and girls teams are on. “We had little time we had to adapt, but were ready right away. They played hard with a lot of intensity; I really liked how we played.
“We played against a good team, so I'm really proud of the girls.”
The Lions are enjoying their time in the USA; the teams both attended Tuesday's Independence Day St. Louis Cardinals game against the Miami Marlins and wore star-spangled and striped socks with the Cardinals logos on them during the game. “They're really having a good time,” Van Bouwels said. “The atmosphere on the team is so good; on the court, they're rooting for each other; they're a good group of girls and they get along really well.
“We've been here a few days now; we were in Chicago for a day and now we're visiting the St. Louis area; it's a nice experience for the girls. They really liked (the Cardinals-Marlins game), although the game wasn't the best, but they liked the atmosphere and the experience, just to get the U.S. culture. Next week, they go to Hermann (Mo.) and get to know the local people and the way of living here in the States; it'll be a good experience.”
The visit for the Lions' girls team is a first; Van Bouwels had previously coached the boys team. “The last three years, I coached the boys team,” Van Bouwels said. “This is the first time with the girls; I really like it. I will come back again, for sure.”
As for the game, Van Bowels said “we had some trouble stopping them on defense; we had to foul them quite a bit and they did a good job shooting the ball in the second half. We did our best; the other team was a little bit stronger.”
“It was a good experience for the girls,” Halling said. “This is the first year the Belgian team has brought a girls team, so it was great for our girls to get the opportunity. As you saw, Lauren Fischer is a warrior down low and we used her a lot, but I thought Taylor Aguirre played a lot better in the second half and scored for us; our battle a lot of times is getting someone other than Lauren to score, and when we get those other kids contributing, we're a lot better team.”
Fischer led the Explorers with 18 points, followed by Aguirre with 10, Peyton Kline with nine, Katie Williams four, Lila Snider three and Payton Connors and Kennedy Neal one each. The Lions were led by Noor Schapmans with seven points, Rani Simeons five, Rene Tilakos, Sarah Leyder, Charlotte Leyssens and Lore Coots four each and Julie Cuyckens and Laura Floren two each.
