Heights advances, gets its rematch
Friday, January 23, 2009
Before the Northern Heights and Herington game even tipped off on Thursday, Osage City’s Carly Spicer said she was looking forward to Saturday’s championship game against Northern Heights.
The Ladycats got caught looking forward as well. A scoreless second quarter made them realize they still had a game to play, and with a 42-31 win, the Ladycats will finally get their rematch in Saturday’s championship against Osage City.
“You don’t want to look ahead, but that’s a matchup we want to see,” NHHS coach Tim Riemann said. “We want to play Osage. We want another shot. We think we played with them pretty well last time and we’re looking forward to that challenge again.”
Herington presented an unexpected challenge on Thursday after it appeared the Ladycats were going to run away to another easy win, which was the case the first time the teams played.
Northern Heights forced seven turnovers in the first quarter and led 13-3. Whether they were looking ahead or not, the Ladycats played their worst quarter of the year in the second. They did not score for the first time all year, missing all six of their shots and committing four turnovers.
“It’s human nature,” Riemann said. “You see that game before you and you want to play. You want to play the best, and we beat Herington bad before so maybe we were looking ahead a little bit.”
The Lady Railers took advantage of the Ladycats’ letup, and rallied to tie the score at 13 going into halftime. With Heights struggling on offense, the Lady Railers slowed the pace of the game and were able to score in the halfcourt. In the first quarter, they had struggled to even get the ball into the frontcourt.
“When we score, we’re able to get into our press and we didn’t score so we didn’t get into our press,” Riemann said, “and that played right into their hands being able to not let us pick up that fullcourt pressure.”
Sarah Boline ended the scoreless streak that lasted 10 minutes, 50 seconds with a baseline jumper that gave the Ladycats the lead. She followed with a layup off a steal. Andrea Miller and Tess Hobson each scored to give the Ladycats four straight makes after they had missed nine straight shots.
The Ladycats had a six-point lead going into the fourth quarter, and they opened on a 6-0 run to push the lead to 12, and they held a double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Miller led a balanced Heights’ attack with 10 points. Leann Baird scored eight points off the bench, Hobson scored seven points and Amy Lee added six.
Now, the Ladycats can start looking ahead to Saturday’s rematch with the Lady Indians, who gave Heights its only loss this season.
“We’re really excited to come out and have another chance at playing them again,” Miller said, “and hopefully this time we’ll come out on top.”
Lee added, “We’ve kind of been taking it one game at a time, but I think all of us want another shot at Osage.”
Northern Heights girls 42, Herington 31
Herington 3 10 8 10 — 31
Northern Heights 13 0 14 15 — 42
Herington — Strome 4, Schlesener 1, Makovec 16, Brockmeier 8, Bernot 2.
Northern Heights — Hobson 7, Lee 6, Miller 10, A. Boline 2, Zumbrum 4, S. Boline 5, Baird 8.
Council Grove girls 50, Mission Valley 38
Council Grove advanced to the fifth place game in the loser’s bracket of the Flint Hills Shootout on Thursday.
Javyn Carl led four Lady Braves in double figures with 11 points. Darrah Miller, Hannah Blim and Shelby Bowen each added 10 points apiece. Council Grove will play West Franklin on Saturday at noon. Mission Valley plays Lyndon in the seventh place game at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Council Grove girls 50, Mission Valley 38
Mission Valley 5 16 8 9 — 38
Council Grove 6 15 12 17 — 50
Mission Valley — Pletcher 4, Rush 20, Floyd 4, Schwant 4, Douglas 2, Niehues 4.
Council Grove — Miller 10, Blim 10, Switzer 6, Siegle 3, Carl 11, Bowen 10.
West Franklin girls 36, Lyndon 34
West Franklin struggled at the line in the fourth quarter, making only 2-of-9 free throws, but the Falcons held on to advance to the fifth place game.
Rose Griffin led West Franklin with 14 points, and Maroli Gales led Lyndon with 10 points.
West Franklin girls 36, Lyndon 34
Lyndon 4 6 10 14 — 34
West Franklin 12 7 7 10 — 36
Lyndon — Bitts 6, Miner 1, Gales 10, Fine 6, Bronson 5, Burkett 6.
West Franklin — Rockhold 1, Griffin 14, Greer 2, Sleichter 8, Cates 4, Milton 5, Prochnow 2.