The Smoky Valley Lady Vikings were 16 minutes away from their first victory of the season leading 25-23 at the half, but the Trojans of Southeast of Saline would battle back to win 52-47.
The game turned on the free throw line as the Vikings were 8-20 and the Trojans 21-29. Leading the Trojans was Molly Chitty as she converted 7 of her 10 tries finishing with 11 points. Keely Orr was 6 of 9 and finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Guard Karis Calahan finished with 6 assists. The Vikings Kira Haxton would set a single game tournament record with 6 three-pointers and finish with a game-high 21 points and a team-high 5 assists. Bri Franklin was the only other Viking in double figures finishing with 11 points and 9 rebounds. Southeast will play Lyons in the 5th place contest while Smoky Valley will face Trinity for seventh. The Beloit Lady Trojans punched their ticket to the 5th Annual Sterling Girls Invitational Final by defeating Remington 63-51 in Thursday's Semi-Final.
Beloit shot a combined 52 percent from the field. They were led by Sydney Johnson with 24 points and 12 rebounds followed by Shea Larson with 15 points and Sydney Barrett with 12. Of the 18 baskets, the Trojans converted 11 were assisted. Jess Meier finished with 7 assists and 6 points and Kalista Hubert with 4 assists of her own. Kimalee Cook and Morgan Thundberg led the Broncos with 15 and 11 points each. Remington will face Hugoton in the third-place game at Sterling College while Beloit will take on Sterling in the Championship. The Sterling Lady Black Bears and the Hugoton Lady Eagles staged a slugfest in a physical back and forth battle in the first semi-final of the Sterling Girls Invitational. The Lady Bears survived 47-43 to put themselves in Friday's championship game.
Sterling would convert 20 of its 47 points from the free-throw line while making only 11 field goals for 24% for the game. It, however, was enough to overcome a young, tough Eagle team. Hugoton jumped out to a 7 point lead with just under two minutes left in the first before the Bears would roar back to close the deficit to three 12-9 at the end of the first period. The familiar tournament foes fought evenly in the second quarter with the Eagles maintaining their three-point lead at the break, 24-21. Sterling would close the gap to one point after three quarters, 33-32. In the fourth Sterling would finally take the lead and run out to a 7 point lead and held off the Eagles the rest of the way for secure the victory. The Eagles were led in scoring by Johanna Rawlins with 12 points and Jordyn Beard who hauled down 12 rebounds. Taya Wilson once again led the Bears i with 13 points while Kinzie Comley chipped in 9 and Camille Schweizer added 7. Sterling will face Beloit in the championship game at Sterling College. If there was any doubt about how the game was going to go, they were quelled by the
second period where a dominant Hugoton Lady Eagle defense stymied the Lady Trojans offense, holding Southeast to 19% shooting on the night in a 53-17 victory. Molly Chitty of Southeast who lead the team in scoring with seven points, helped keep the game competitive in the first quarter, which ended in a 15-9 lead for the Eagles. However, the offensive tandem of JoHanna Rawlins and Laney Hoskinson, who scored 15 and 12 respectively on the night, lead the Eagles to a 28-14 halftime lead. The second half was defined by the complete lockdown defense of the Eagles allowing Southeast 3 points in the entire half, and none in the fourth quarter. The stout Hugoton defense was anchored by Jordyn Beard, who scored eight points in the contest, but more importantly nabbed 14 rebounds, 9 on the defensive end. Hugoton will face Sterling tomorrow at 4:30 in Ora Shields Activity Center. SE Saline plays Smoky Valley at 3:00 tomorrow at Ora Shields. The Sterling Black Bears did not have their best night offensively, however it mattered
not as a stingy defense along with an offense that came alive in the fourth quarter lead the Lady Bears to a 58-40 win over the Lady Vikings of Smoky Valley. Taya Wilson and Camille Schweizer of Sterling who scored 14 points and 12 points respectively; paced the Bears early to a 17-11 lead after the first quarter. The Bears cooled off in the second quarter as Amanda Behanna of Smoky Valley(12 pts), along with Haven Sjogren(7 pts) and Bri Franklin(8 pts) kept the Vikings in the ballgame, shrinking the Sterling lead to three at the half; the score 28-25. In the 2nd half, Grace Rowland and Aniston Ramsey who had 11 points each, helped the Bears extend the lead back to six; Jordan Otto of the Vikings helped keeping the game at reachable length, into the 4th quarter, the score was 40-34. In the fourth period, a pressing Black Bear squad forced some quick turnovers and capitalized quickly extending their lead into double digits, and kept the lead thanks to shooting 22/29 as a team from the free throw stripe. The press combination along with stellar free throw shooting helped lead the Bears to a final score of 58-40 The old adage goes “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish that counts”, the same was true in the consolation bracket game between the Lyons Lady Lions and the Hutchinson-Trinity Catholic Lady Celtics. The Lions defeated the Celtics 56-48.
Trinity lead through the first quarter, Elizabeth Zrubek leading the charge for the Celtics, who scored 14 points and had four steals in the game. Zrubek and Hayley Hughes of Trinity, scoring 17 in the game, nabbing six rebounds and playing all 32 minutes lead the Celtics to a 12 point lead with just under three minutes left in the first half. During that time Bailey Hollinger of Lyons, who scored 21 points, and was 5/7 from the three-point arc, helped shrink the Celtic lead to two at the halftime 30-28. The third quarter went back and forth, with both Lyons and Trinity trading baskets for the entirety of the quarter, with Olivia Shank and Becca Hammersmith, who each scored six in the contest contributing to the Celtic effort; whilst Kristina Belote and Kristina who scored 7 and 11 respectively paced the Lyons, the quarter ended deadlocked at 40-40. The fourth quarter was all Lyons, who doubled up Trinity in the fourth quarter 16-8, thanks in part to timely free throw shooting down the stretch, and the Lady Lions prevailed 56-48. At the Sterling Girls Invitational, the Beloit Trojans improved their record to 7-2 as they defeated Lyons 53-31 in the opening round.
The Trojans led after one quarter 13-6 and would go on a 19-2 run in the second to lead 32-8 at the break. Beloit would extend the lead to 47-17 at the end of the 3rd. Beloit was paced by Sydney Johnson with 15 points and 5 rebounds, Kalista Hubert with 9 points and 4 assists. Jess Meier finished with 8, Sydney Barrett with 8 points and 6 rebounds. The Lady Lyons got 13 points and 7 rebounds from senior Bailey Hollinger. Lyons is now 2-9 and will face Trinity in tomorrow afternoon’s consolation bracket at 3 pm. Beloit enters the semifinals on Thursday playing the winner of Sterling- Smoky Valley game on Wednesday. A week and a half after losing to the Trinity Lady Celtics in overtime, the Remington Broncos responded by defeating the Celtics 48-38 in the opening round of the Sterling Girls Invitational Tournament.
After a tight first quarter where the Broncos led by one they would take a commanding 26-12 lead into halftime. Trinity would ‘win’ the second half 26-21 but it wasn’t enough to overcome the 14 point halftime deficit. Remington was led by Sienna Schmidt and Kimalee Cook who combined for 32 points with 16 each and Dez Ingalsbee grabbed 8 rebounds. Hayley Hughes had a double-double for the Celtics with 13 points and 11 boards. Elizabeth Zrubek followed with 10 points, Ovia Shank with 8, and Meg Friday with 5. Remington will face the winner of tomorrow’s Southeast of Saline - Hugoton winner. Trinity faces Lyons in Wednesday’s consolation bracket. Game time is at 3 pm. All games can be seen on sterlinginvitational.com 2018 Sterling Girls Invitational The 5th version of the Sterling Girls Invitational hosted by Sterling High School and Sterling College features just two teams with winning records. The Sterling Lady Black Bears are the one seed with the Beloit Trojans as the two seed on the bottom of the bracket. Monday's matchups features Beloit and Lyons and the Trinity Celtics versus Heart of America League opponent the Remington Broncos. Tuesday Sterling will play the 0-8 Smoky Valley Vikings with Hugoton and Southeast of Saline being the featured evening game. 2018 Sterling Girls Invitational Team Capsules Sterling Lady Black Bears (7-2)
The Lady Black Bears grabbed the first seed in this year's tournament with signature wins over then 3A #1 ranked Kingman Eagles and 2017 3A State Runner-Up Cheney Cardinals in the HOA-CPL Challenge. |
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