OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — Michelle Chandler won’t easily be convinced that her Taegu American Warriors’ pounding of the Cougars at Osan American on Friday was a landmark victory.

“The score was not indicative of our effort,” she said after senior Lynnette Grant scored 30 points and the Warriors beat the defending Far East Class A Tournament champion Cougars 60-23.

Taegu has won just two of its last 11 regular-season games with the Cougars since Chandler became coach in 2000. But to her, the verdict signalled much remains to be done before her team can call itself a contender.

“We have a lot to work on,” Chandler said, pointing at rebounding and taking care of the ball as main areas of concern.

She cited the first quarter, after which Taegu led 12-10. The Cougars double-teamed Grant, who got two quick fouls. “We were throwing the ball away and panicking,” Chandler said.

Things turned around in the second quarter when Taegu outscored Osan 21-2. “Once we settled down and got running,” Chandler said, “we were OK.”

Kelli Cox and Tank Hancock had 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Eagles shock tired PanthersAlready exhausted from playing three games in three nights before a 10-hour bus ride to Misawa Air Base, Yokota got a wake-up call from host Robert D. Edgren.

The Eagles capitalized on turnovers to outscore the Panthers 14-8 in the third period en route to a 43-39 upset of Yokota — last season’s Far East Boys Class AA Tournament runner-up — in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Japan League opener for both teams.

“We got some turnovers, pushed the ball up-court and got some easy baskets, which helped … because we were stuck on 34 points in the fourth quarter for a while,” said Edgren coach Andre Thibert.

Cameron Cooper of Yokota led all scorers with 21 points. Shamar Riddick and Mark Young each netted 10 for Edgren.

The Panthers “played like we’d played four games in a row and taken a 10-hour bus ride,” coach Paul Ettl said. “You score 38 points in a high school game, it’s hard to win many of those.”

The Panthers faced a Saturday rematch with Edgren and another game with Japanese school Morioka South. “We have a tough schedule to open. We have to put it past us and move on,” Ettl said. “Hopefully, we can learn from it.”

Seoul American boys get ‘good learning experience’SEOUL — Another Class AA tournament power, 2003 and ’04 champion Seoul American, also got its awakening on Friday, falling 101-48 to Yongsan High School, a Korean team that Falcons coach Steve Boyd said was “way out of our league.”

“We’re not going to face anybody as big, fast and strong as they are,” Boyd said of Yongsan, which featured good size inside and three-point shooting. “We played a good 3-2 zone but they kept moving the ball around and shot the lights out. And they’re bigger and stronger than we are.”

Jamaal Mohn paced the Falcons with 12 points.

Migrated