For most of Friday evening, Leyden senior guard Alondra Chavarria was having a hard time scoring from the field against Taft.
She was 0-for-14 from the floor going into the fourth quarter and could not convert, no matter how close she was to the basket.
In fact, the entire Eagles’ lineup was having a hard time scoring. They had a total of six field goals heading into the final quarter, which would spell disaster for just about any team.
Chavarria and Leyden, however, had plenty of rhythm at the free-throw line in their 50-45 nonconference home win over Taft.
“We started out slow in the first half,” first-year Leyden coach Stephanie Kuzmanic said. “We really played our best basketball Tuesday in our [47-43] loss to Downers Grove South, and tonight we came out flat and we weren’t executing on the floor.”
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Chavarria agreed. “We basically have had a hard time finding a rhythm,” she said. “We started to find it at the end of the first half and then we had to sort of start over and think 0-0 going into the second half.”
For much of the night, Leyden (4-2) was able to stay within striking distance because of its shooting at the line. Chavarria was 13 of 15 and the team as a whole shot 23 of 34.
“I’ve been working on my free throws constantly,” Chavarria said. “And in practice we’ve been working on them a lot. And we’ve been aggressive by charging to the basket.”
Kuzmanic said foul shooting is important because of the Eagles’ lack of height.
“That’s been a strength of ours because we’re a small team, but we’re a quick team,” she said. “We make a lot of plays charging toward the basket and attacking. We like to run-and-gun and make the most of our opportunities.”
Chavarria, who finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, personified that attitude by taking the ball inside with hard cuts and getting her own rebound when she missed. She finally broke through in the fourth by scoring on a layup while drawing a foul. Coincidently, she failed to convert on the three-point play.
Even still, the senior felt relief.
“Once I got that shot off I started to feel confident and I was able to build off of that and start making the rest of my shots,” she said.
Chavarria scored 15 of her 22 points in the fourth, including nine from the field while going 6 of 7 from the stripe.
Leyden sophomore guard Artasia Gusman finished with 10 points and sophomore forward Cherish Sepulveda had seven points and nine rebounds.
Taft (2-5) was paced by sophomore guard Laken Pullman, who finished with 19 points, and junior guard Samantha Anderson with 13 points and seven rebounds.