A record night in Sigourney

SIGOURNEY - It wasn’t just another ordinary Tuesday night.

On Jan. 21 as Sigourney hosted nearby foe Keota in boys and girls varsity basketball games there were two different records and one milestone set as the two friendly rivals battled each other.

Josephine Moore ties school record for points in a game

It didn’t happen all at once. 

In fact, at times it was hard to know she was on track for the record. Her attack was consistent and from mostly the inside of the key throughout the game. 

Moore would score a school record of 41 points in the contest, which tied school record for most points scored in a single game. 

The 41 points by Moore helped the Savages win 68-44 over Keota in the game. Throughout the contest Moore continued to pour in the points from inside the lane as she scored layup after layup. 

She was also sent to the foul line a total of five times, scoring on all 10 of her shots. 

“She has a goal and she is chasing that goal as we get near the end of the regular season,” said Kaylee Weber, the head coach for the Sigourney girls basketball team  about Moore. “She is staying humble but working to find the open teammate and waiting until the good shot becomes open for herself.”

Early on in the game Brynn Clarahan seemed to have the hot hand as she drained an early three pointer, and then scored four more points off back-to-back layups. 

Moore then started to pick up the rebounds and put the shots back in for an easy two shots. Playing cleanup at the rim Moore was able to score easy shots and help the Savages start to pull away from Keota. 

In the second quarter of the Jan. 21 game Moore scored most of the 17 points. That helped the Savages hold a 37-19 lead at halftime. 

“I had no idea how close she was to the record. Her points are very subtle sometimes,” Weber said. “Obviously I know she scores and gets to the free throw line, but I don’t pay attention to the points that are getting scored as they happen.

“I am very happy for her to tie the school record because it is a hard thing to do. Keota is no team to slack on and for her to tie the school record against them is a really cool thing.”

That wasn’t the end of the milestones that Moore set during games last week. 

Later in the week in a game against WACO the Savages were able to win 64-42. Moore would score a team-high 19 points in that victory.

With the 19 points Moore was able to join the 1,000 point club for the Savages. She is just the sixth girl in Sigourney girls basketball history (in five-vs-five player) to score 1,000 points. She joins a list that Weber is also a part of. 

“She has become much more physical since the first half of the season,” Weber said about Moore. “That is really big for us, especially as we get close to post season play.”

The Savages were a perfect 3-0 last week. In addition to the wins over Keota and WACO, the Savages were also able to best Wilton 70-57 to start the week. In that  game More scored 22 points and pulled in 12 rebounds to lead her team in both categories. 

Kindred sets new career record, Bruns adds name to 1,000 point club

As if the excitement in the girls game wasn’t enough, more records were set in the boys game between Sigourney and Keota. 

The game itself was a close battle the whole way through. Sigourney grabbed the early lead, but both teams were tied at 22 at halftime. 

The third quarter featured the game tilting in the favor of Sigourney as they scored one more point than  the Eagles. 

Throughout a heavy scoring fourth quarter the Eagles had the momentum early on, but Sigourney used consistent shots, and especially shots from senior Isaac Bruns to be able to grab the eventual 62-55 victory. 

Bruns sealed the game when he was able to steal the ball late and score on a wide open layup with 48 seconds left, at that time, giving Sigourney the 60-55 lead. The Savages added one more basket late to seal the win and give Sigourney their first win over Keota since Jan. 21, 2022. The win was just the fourth time in the last 10 years Sigourney has scored a win over Keota.

“Defensively we did a great job throughout the entire game tonight,” said Mitch Eslick, the head coach for the Sigourney boys basketball team. “We needed to make more shots in the second half, and that’s what we were eventually able to do. We got to the rim in the first half, but we just didn’t make a lot of them. In the second half we were able  to make a lot more of our shots.”

With the shots falling in the second half the Savages were able to use the home court momentum to gain the win, and keep Keota off their toes a little bit.

“We just missed too many shots tonight, Sigourney hit some shots and had a lot of the breaks go their way and that was the difference tonight,” Dan Stout, the head coach for the Keota boys basketball team said. “You don’t want to turn the ball over and we did that too much tonight. We just lost our composure and didn’t make the right plays at the right time tonight.”

Although the Eagles fell in the game they were still able to add the game to the long term memory list because of the play of senior Billie Kindred.

Kindred finished with 24 points and 14 rebounds. The 14 rebounds helped him set a new school record for most rebounds in a single career by a Keota player. 

Kindred has pulled in 695 rebounds (and counting) throughout his basketball career. He passed Luke Lyle who had previously held the record at 682 career rebounds. 

That wasn’t the only noteworthy performance of the contest. 

Sigourney’s Isaac Bruns was able to finish the game with 13 points, which pushed Bruns over the 1,000 point mark in his Sigourney career. 

“He has done so many different things for us in his career,” Eslick said about Bruns. “He was a point guard for us as a freshman and sophomore. As a junior and senior he has had to defend the best player from every other team. He never has questioned where he plays and just looks at the bigger picture on doing what he needs to do for the team to win.”

The 1,000 point club at Sigourney is one that is kind of a mystery to the Sigourney boys basketball team. 

“I don’t know the last person to score 1,000 points was, so I guess that is one thing that is cool about getting the milestone,” Bruns said after the game. “It just feels nice to finally get this off my back. I’m just happy to be able to be able to go out and play some ball for the rest of the season.”

Even coach Eslick and Sigourney activities director, Lee Crawford, said they would have to dig deep into the record books to find who all belongs to the 1,000 point club for Sigourney boys basketball. 

The Savages were not able to keep up the momentum from their win on Thursday night. 

In a Jan. 23 game the Savages fell 62-49 on the road against WACO. They trailed by one at the end of the third quarter, but were out scored 24-12 in the final quarter which gave the Warriors the ultimate 13-point win.

In that contest Bruns and Solon Yates both scored 15 points to lead the Savages in scoring. 

Photos by Mark Schafer