Lyndon’s Goetz hits game-winner to put Lady Tigers in title game
Josh Slaughter
Saturday, January 26, 2008
In a game that did not lack for excitement, the Lyndon Tigers overcame poor shooting and an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to pull out a 52-50 victory over Lebo in the championship semifinals of the Lyon County League Tournament.
Early on, it looked like Lebo would avenge its loss to Lyndon earlier this season, as the Lady Wolves out-rebounded Lyndon 11-3 and took a 16-11 first quarter advantage.
“I don’t know if we did a lot differently (from the first meeting). We gave up a lot more point-blank shots the first game and gave up a lot of layups to them off the break,” Lebo coach Jay Applegate said. “Tonight, we were patient and hit some of our easy buckets.”
Lyndon managed to keep the game close, though. Despite shooting only 45 percent from the field in the first half, Lyndon actually held the lead at 24-23 before Lebo’s Kate Marks hit a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Lady Wolves the 26-24 halftime edge.
Going into the break, Lebo held the rebounding edge, as they had a 15-6 advantage.
“Usually we don’t do well on the boards,” Applegate said, “but we challenge our girls every night to rebound better, and I think I just emphasized that we do it tonight. We’re capable of doing it, and tonight we did it.”
Lyndon, led by the play of senior Stephanie Goetz, who finished with a game-high 21 points, started to turn things around in the second half by taking advantage of Lebo turnovers.
“We knew we were rushing our shots and we weren’t playing as strong as we should have been,” Goetz said. “So, we told ourselves we need to go back to how we play and just step back up to our game.”
Lyndon ended up winning the turnover battle, 20-15, though the Lady Tigers were outrebounded by the Lady Wolves, 25-20.
“We knew we could get up and down the floor on them,” Goetz said, “so when we did get the rebound we just tried to be more aggressive.”
With the game heading into the fourth quarter, the Lady Wolves seemed to take over the game for a second time, getting out to an eight-point lead with less than 5 minutes to play.
“We came of age tonight,” Applegate said. “We have not played a better game all year.”
However, Lyndon had four seniors on the floor, and the Lady Tigers started to show their maturity.
“We’ve been in this situation several times over the years. As freshman and sophomores, (the girls) would end up making mistakes and losing games like tonight,” Lyndon coach Frank Hart said. “With the senior maturity, now we’re able to calm down and we’re able to relax and run our offense, which is what we needed to do.”
The Tigers did just that, as Goetz and senior Krista Banzhaf each hit their final three shots — including a clutch three-point play by Goetz that gave the Tigers the lead for good at 52-50 with 35 seconds left. The Lady Wolves got three final chances on their end, but a last second three-point try by Marks came up short.
The Lady Wolves were led by sophomore Morgan Laflin, who finished with 15 points before fouling out of the game. Banzhaf added 12 points for the Tigers.
Lyndon advanced to the championship game, where it will face Olpe at 6 tonight. Lebo will face Madison in the third-place game at 3 p.m.
Lyndon 52, Lebo 50
Lebo 16 10 13 11 — 50
Lyndon 11 13 11 17 — 52
Lebo — Morgan Laflin 7-14 1-2 15, Morgan Tastove 4-13 1-2 10, Shelby Robke 4-6 0-0 9, Lauren Schlesener 2-8 1-3 5, Kate Marks 2-3 0-1 5, Tabitha Frye 1-2 2-2 4, Deidra Jones 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 21-38 5-10 50.
Lyndon — Stephanie Goetz 8-17 5-9 21, Krista Banzhaf 6-11 0-0 12, Chelsea Schmitz 2-6 5-6 9, Ashley Persinger 2-3 2-4 6, Kayla Schmidt 1-4 2-2 4. Totals 19-41 14-21 52.
3-point goals — Lebo 3-7 (Marks 1-2, Robke 1-2, Tastove 1-2), Lyndon 0-3. Rebounds — Lebo 25, Lyndon 20. Turnovers — Lebo 15, Lyndon 20. Total fouls — Lebo 17, Lyndon 10. Fouled out — Lebo: Laflin, Frye.
Olpe 45, Madison 21
The top-seeded Olpe girls nearly got all the scoring they would need in the first half of Friday’s game against Madison, as the Lady Eagles scored 21 first-half points on their way to a 45-21 victory over the Lady Bulldogs in the championship semifinals of the Lyon County League Tournament.
Led by eight points from Megan Woods in the first half, Olpe gained a 21-10 lead by the intermission and rolled from there.
Meanwhile, Madison’s top two scoring threats Morgan Stout and Shelby Buster had a rough go of things offensively. Buster scored just seven points while Stout, who didn’t score until 15 seconds into the third quarter, finished with six points.
Woods finished with 10 points, as did Katie Moyer, who hit two 3-pointers.
Olpe will play second-seeded Lyndon for the tournament title at 6 tonight, while Madison will face Lebo at 3 p.m. in the third-place game.
Olpe 45, Madison 21
Madison 4 6 6 5 — 21
Olpe 10 11 11 13 — 45
Madison — Danielle Bond 4, Morgan Stout 6, Abby Kile 3, Shelby Buster 7, Tera Titus 1.
Olpe — Jill Cole 2, Kylie Haag 6, Katie Moyer 10, Brianne Davis 5, Kathryn Flott 8, Erica Brinkman 4, Megan Woods 10.
Halftime — Olpe 21-10. Total fouls — Madison 13, Olpe 10.