By Autumn Schulz

Getting better and improving without their injured team captain was the goal in mind for the Charleston High girls varsity team Thursday evening in Baker Gymnasium.

The Trojans took the court against Apollo Conference opponent Mahomet-Seymour knowing that junior guard Ally Logsdon would remain on the bench after a season-ending meniscus injury.

The scoreboard showed a 68-16 Trojan loss at the end of the night, dropping the Trojans to 1-7 on the season and 0-2 in conference play, but head coach Shani Iberg said that their goals to improve cannot be measured in the moment. 

“Regardless of what the score says, we’re here to learn and get better every day because our goal is not right now this season,” Iberg said. “Our goal is long term at this point.”

The Trojans’ starting five include three freshmen, one sophomore and one junior.

As a team, the Trojans feature 10 freshmen, two sophomores, and four juniors with three of them being able to play.

Iberg said that there are still things that younger players are learning only eight games into the season.

“We knew coming into it, OK, we’re obviously young, right? I’m freshman- and sophomore-based,” Iberg said. “So, we’ve had quite the journey and we now have to relearn some new roles. We thought we had roles down, now we’re totally relearning that.”

Junior guard Megan Myerscough was among those accepting a new role on the court.

Trojans were coming off a defensive rebound, followed by a turnover, when Myerscough was able to get two points in the paint to break an 18-0 offensive run by the Bulldogs to start the game.

Myerscough had a new personal-best of eight points to lead the Trojans.

“I really don’t think that it’s gonna be one person. I think it’s gonna take a group of people because one person gets it going, but, as you’ve seen, even when we had Ally, we still struggled,” Myerscough said. “So, it’s definitely not just gonna be a one-person thing.” 

The Bulldogs outscored the Trojans 33-6 in the first half and 35-10 in the second half. 

The Bulldogs had two players in double digits at the end of the night. Savannah Orgeron led the team with 14 points, followed by fellow senior guard Alayna DeWitt who had 12 points.

Myerscough said that it is a matter of working on having confidence between now and the next game that will lead the Trojans to a better outcome.

“When we are able to be confident in our own abilities and we’re able to dribble with our head up and then we can see our teammates and be able to pass the ball to them,” Myerscough said. “So, I definitely would say like, just being more confident in our own abilities.”

The Trojans’ next game will be 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at home conference opponent Lincoln.  

1234F
Mahomet18152213 –68
Charleston 0682 –16

CHARLESTON: Ruthie Okrasinski 1 0-0 2, Ellie Swies 1 0-0 3, Maggie Englum 0 1-2 1, Megan Myerscough 4 0-0 8, Bailey Harris 1 0-0 2, Kenzie Wanek 0 0-0 0, Jacey Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals – 7 1-2 16. 3-pointer – Swies.