South Tama’s Maci Fritz chases down a loose ball then proceeds down the court in the Trojans season opener against Western Dubuque Tuesday, November 24. Chronicle Photo/Allison Graham

The size and experience of the Western Dubuque Bobcats proved to be a tough test for the Lady Trojans in their season opener on Tuesday, November 24. The Bobcats defeated the Trojans 57-38.

Western Dubuque hails from the Eastern division of the WaMaC Conference. The Bobcats starting lineup was made up of girls all 5’10 and above and included seniors Jessica Cartee, Abigail Dophin, Quinn Herbst, Megan Maahs and junior Morgan Pitz.

Starting for the Trojans were seniors Kallie Hala, Dani Stubbs, Madie Bacon and Tieranny Keahna and junior Minnie Climer.

The Trojans have some height of their own with Keahna and Stubbs both standing over six feet tall, but two players versus nearly an entire lineup of girls 6’0 and above made for a long night on both ends of the ball.

Offensively the Trojans struggled, as they were unable to get Keahna, who has been a low post scoring threat in seasons past, many open looks underneath the hoop. The Trojans other leading scorer from last season, Bacon, was held to just six free throws and zero field goals on the night.

On paper what probably hurt the Trojans the most was turnovers. The girls racked up a whopping 29 turnovers compared to only nine from the Bobcats. Protecting the ball with no doubt be a key focus for the team moving forward.

Despite it being a tough opening game for the Lady Trojans there were some good things that the Trojans will hopefully be able to build upon throughout the season. The addition of Maci Fritz to the lineup has a lot of potential. Fritz is a good ball handler and is also quite scrappy on the defensive end.

Minnie Climer also had some nice shots from the perimeter. Unfortunately those moments just came too few and far between. Climer ended the night with 10 points just two behind leading scorer Keahna with 12. Stubbs and Keahna led the Trojans defensively with eight rebounds.