By james art After a one -year pause, the Stanton girls are again champions of the Corner Conference tournament.
Viqueens, winners of five of the last six crowns of the conference, have avenge the loss of Fremont-Mills at last year’s finals with 58-54 over Knights at the Friday finals at Griswold.
Stanton (11-3, 5-0 in the conference) led with as many as 20 points in the match and had to hold a late Rally at Knights (9-5 in total, 6-2 in the conference).
Fremont-Mills reduced its 14-point lead in the fourth quarter to four minutes before the end. But it was as close as they would have reached the second consecutive loss from Vikuins this season.
Lauren Johnson scored 18 and Hannah Olson and Riley Burke scored 17 points to lead Stanton.
Knights were led by Bella Gute, Carly Nucols and Lana Ali with 14 points each.
East Mills 45,
Sydney 34
Caitlin Kraus and Ava Grindell scored 11 points each to outstrip East Mills in a 45-34 win over Sydney in the match for third place at the Corner Conference Grizouold Grill’s Basketball Tournament on Friday.
Adison Foster had 12 points to lead Sydney.
Stanton 60,
East Mills 41
Stanton started another quick start using his entire court pressure to turn the rpm into easy buckets to dig east Mills Hole from 20 points in the middle of the second quarter at the 60-41 win in the last semifinal of Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament Wednesday.
Viqueens led 18-7 after a quarter and saw that the difference increased to 40-17 in half.
“When we went into rhythm, especially against their man per person, we put on a regular basis from our attack in half the court,” said Stanton coach Dave Snyder after the match. “But we are also looking for our thefts and easy descents.”
The werewolves didn’t seem to feel comfortable in the first half. The 17 points of the first half were their second lowest since they scored only seven in the loss of 43-11 to the same Viqueens two weeks ago.
“We waited too late to show up at the basketball match,” said East Mills Coach Lexi Moreno. “It took us some time to settle down and meet our play plan.”
The werewolves appeared in the second half. They started the third quarter with a 12-5 series to reduce the lead to 16 by just over three minutes before the end to force Snyder to take a timeout and arrange their team.
“The second half, when you have the first half like us, you will have a little stagnant second half,” Snyder said. “I have the feeling that when they reduced it to 16, we answered very well and returned the lead to 21 very quickly. I was very pleased with it. And in the end, we are in the final. “
East Mills would reduce the lead to 17 again to the fourth, but it was as close to them as possible. Wolverines really beat Viqueens 24-20 after halftime.
“The last few games we have played extremely well in the second half, we really have to work on not digging a hole in the first quarter,” Moreno said. “We won the second half tonight and I’m really proud of how the girls managed to get together and play good basketball.”
Lauren Johnson was the leader of Vikouens with 21 points. Riley Burke recorded 14 and Hannah Olson 11.
Caitlyn Crouse scored 14 and Ava Grindle 13 to lead East Mills.
Fremont-Mills 43,
Sydney 33
Fremont-Mills started the third quarter with a series of 11-2 and uses its sharp protective effort to retreat from Sydney to win 43-33 in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals in Stanton last Wednesday.
The Nights series of the third quarter came after a second quarter, in which they fought in an attack that allowed Kaugles to reduce the two-digit lead to 18-17 on the break.
The encouraging conversation of the half time by senior coach Bret Weldon seems to have turned the knights.
“I told them at half that we somehow lost our heads there, worrying about officials and worrying about physical play,” Weldon said after the match. “We told them not to worry, we cannot control this and just go out and play, and they did so in the third quarter.”
The knights gave the tone in defense with their active protection man to a person in the whole court.
“We play a good protection person to person,” Weldon said. “Teams are not able to prepare so much for this. We tried to change the defense a little there to give a break to the girls and then they hit a few threes, so we went back to it. But protecting her into an attack was huge for us. “
Fremont-Mills led 33-25 in the fourth and then Bella Gute took over. The senior guard celebrated a penalty throw, a threesome and assisted a great pass to Carly Nucols to increase the lead to 37-25.
Gute’s third three-threesome in the match was a Kama, which gave Knights a 42-27 lead just under three minutes before the end.
“She’s a great athlete and a competitor,” Weldon told Gute. “She plays so hard. She needs rest and we just can’t get her out because she has to be there for us. She does so much for us in attack and protection and works her back. “
Gute finished with 21 points, while taking five stolen balls. Nucols added eight points.
Sydney was led by 12 points by Marley Schul.
East Mills 41,
Grizwold 38
East Mills beat Griswold by 41-38 in the quarterfinals of Corner Conference Girls Basketball last Monday in Stanton.
Caitlin Kraus and Ava Grindell scored 11 points to lead Wolverines.
Cassin Adams scored 10 points, and Amanda Hauser eight to lead Griswold.
Fremont-Mills 47,
Essex 24
Fremont-Mils built a 30-11 half-time lead on the way to a 47-24 victory over Essex in the first round of the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament last Monday in Stanton.
Bella Gute lead to Knights with 12 points. Carly Nucols scored 10 points and Carly Chambers eight.
Peyin bathtub introduced as an Essex with 11 points and 15 rebounds.