BETHALTO – Starting a season strong is nothing new for the Civic Memorial girls basketball team.
For the third time in the last four seasons, the Eagles are off and running with a 6-0 start. They reached that mark Monday night after beating Mascoutah in their home opener by a score of 61-30.
New head coach Jeff Durbin couldn’t have dreamt of a better start to the season.
“It feels good,” he said after his first home win as head coach. “I can’t believe we’re in game six already. Feels like the season just started. But it was fun. We had a good crowd, they were into it, our bench was into it. It was a good night.”
The Eagles went 5-0 and won the Taylorville tournament on Saturday, beating the hosts 56-35. CM also won the tournament last season when it got off to an 11-0 start. The Eagles did the same in the 2021-22 season when they started with a 13-0 record.
It’s important to get off to a fast start on the season, and it helps when you get off to a fast start in the game.
CM did just that against Mascoutah, going on a 10-1 run to open the contest, outscoring the Indians 20-5 after the first quarter.
“We talk about that a lot,” Durdin said. “We just got done with the Taylorville tournament, and only one of those five games did we get off to a good start. Last game we were down 10-0 before I knew it. We talked about that for this game. I wasn’t worried, but I stressed to them, ‘Hey, we just played five games, now we’re playing again; we have to come out to better starts.’ And their energy was high tonight. We jumped out to a good start which was huge.”
The Eagles went on to lead 41-12 at halftime before giving their bench some minutes during the second half.
10 different Eagles got in the scorebook.
Marley Ogden led all scorers with 17 points, Allie Truetzschler had 12, and Avery Huddleston had 11. Isabelle Edwards scored seven points and Addison Jeffery and Gracie Miller each scored three.
Marlee Durbin, Meredith Brueckner, Payton Davis, and Audrey Frankfort each scored two points.
It was the third time in the opening six games that Ogden led the team in scoring. Huddleston led the team in the other three games, but the scoring can come from anywhere.
“We’ve got some shooters; we’ve got some inside presence,” Durbin said. “That’s what I want. I don’t want someone averaging 22 points per game. Obviously, that’s awesome, but I love when it’s spread out. Because then you’re hard to scout.”
The same philosophy that longtime head coach Mike Arbuthnot used. Never be too one-dimensional. Arb coached the team for the last five seasons and left with a 106-46 record, leading the Eagles to their first-ever state tournament where they took fourth in the 2021-22 season.
Durbin was an assistant coach under Arbuthnot during that time and had never really dreamt of becoming CM’s next head coach until it happened.
“I honestly did not,” Durbin said. “I know I started with the Jr. Eagles and then I was at the middle school, then I was here with Arb. I thought he’d be here a lot longer. To be honest, I didn’t even think about it, but that last year he started talking about it, that it could [happen]. That kind of got my mind going. It was never really an end goal of mine. Just kind of how things lined up.”
But Durbin doesn’t plan on making any major shakeups.
“Not much. I like to get out and play man [defense] a little more and get after it,” he said. “We’re doing a little more run and jump, and I think the kids like it better. I know it’s a grind as the season goes on, and we’ll back it off as we need to, but they love getting out and just playing fast.”
That’s what the Eagles did on Monday, scoring most baskets in transition while still dropping in seven three-pointers. That stat won’t change for CM either.
“We’re going to shoot threes,” Durbin said. “We look good when we’re making them and then there are nights we can’t throw a ball in the ocean. We had one of those against Hillsboro. We’re going to shoot them regardless. We have a little more inside presence this year, which is what I was hoping for, but that only opens up the outside more.”
The Eagles improve to 6-0 on the season and more importantly 1-0 in the Mississippi Valley Conference. They jump back into MVC action on Friday against Jerseyville.