Linkous leads rebounding Lady Pirates to three-point win over Fredericktown, 40-37
On Jan. 22, Fredericktown hosted Cardington-Lincoln, with senior Mikayla Linkous putting together a dominant 19-point performance to lead the Pirates to a 40-37 win to improve to 14-1.
It was a bounce-back win for the first-place Pirates, who lost their first game of the season to River Valley earlier in the week. The Lady Pirates, still ranked No.2 in Ohio Division III by the Associated Press, had their 51-game winning streak stopped by River Valley in a week devastated by canceled games and practices, a short aquad, COVID and other illnesses.
With several players still not 100% due to illness and lost practice time, the Lady Pirates started off slowly. Fredericktown came out hot with an 11-3 start in the first quarter, led by sophomore Jill Bouton’s four points, including a make from three-point land. The Lady Pirates righted the ship in the second quarter, with Cardington-Lincoln putting up 11 points and allowing only two from Fredericktown. on a pair of free throws by senior Audrey Bouton. Linkous, who was also recovering from a bout of illness that caused her to miss court time last game, nailed a three for her only bucket of the half, and senior Beth Hardwick hit a three as well. The Freddies did a nice job of holding Hardwick to this one basket, as she is the league’s scoring leader so far this season at 15.6 points per game.
The low-coring first half showed a 14-13 lead for Cardington-Lincoln entering the third quarter. That's when Linkous took over and scored 11 points, including three makes from beyond the arc, to lead a 15-point scoring charge for the Pirates. Fredericktown had an evenly distributed scoring plan, with Cally Carpenter and Bouton draining a three each to lead the team to a 10-point output. The score was 29-23 going into the final frame, and despite the Freddies outscoring the Pirates 14-11, Linkous’ five points down the stretch, as well as senior Kambry Edwards’ five points, led the team to a three-point victory.
Linkous was a force from 3-point range, going 5-for-11 on the night. She also had four boards, four steals and an assist. Edwards added seven points and six defensive boards, as well as five assists and three steals. Senior Karsyn Edwards had only one basket but filled the stat sheet with six rebounds, including three offensive boards, two steals and an assist. Senior Dana Bertke, who missed the last game with illness, had seven points, four boards, four assists, three steals and a block in the win.
Fredericktown was led by Jill Bouton’s 13 points, which included going 4-for-9 from 3-point land. The Freddies dominated the boards 42-30, with Bouton snagging 12 rebounds, including five offensive boards. Senior Gabby Daniels is the top rebounder in the league this season and led the team with 13 boards to go with three assists and a steal. Audrey Bouton had nine boards, two steals, an assist and a block to go with seven points.
The win starts a new regular-season winning streak for C-L and keeps its 66-game KMAC winning streak intact. Cardington-Lincoln is now 14-1 this season and 10-0 in KMAC play, earning it at least a share of the conference title with two games remaining. The loss snapped a two-game win streak for the Freddies, who fell to 11-7 and 6-5 in KMAC play on the season.
Strong second half helps Danville knock off Mount Gilead, 45-42
Danville hosted the Mount. Gilead Indians on Saturday, with the Blue Devils battling until the end for a 45-42 conference victory to improve to 11-4. Mount Gilead fell to 6-9 with the loss.
Danville was led by Ellen Proper, who led all scorers with 16 points, including 10 in the third quarter to propel the Blue Devils' push toward victory. Greer Simpson and Faith White each had 13 points to lead Mount Gilead.
The Indians led in the first quarter 11-8 thanks to strong play by junior Madilyn Elson, who netted six of her 10 points. Danville bounced back to score 11 points in the second frame, but Mount Gilead put up 13 points to make it a 24-19 Indians' advantage going into halftime.
In the third quarter, the momentum shifted to the Blue Devils, thanks to the strong play by Proper, as well as Camie Newbold, who drained four free throws. She made six free throws in the game and had eight total points.
With the score 33-30 at the end of the three quarters, it was anyone’s game in the final frame. Junior Faith White had six of her 13 points in a strong fourth-quarter effort for Mount Gilead, but Kylie and Brooklyn Hess, along with Proper and Newbold, were able to hold on for the three-point win.
Northmor takes middle two quarters to beat Centerburg, 35-29
Centerburg hosted the Northmor Golden Knights on Saturday and thanks to strong second and third quarters by Northmor, the Golden Knights came away with a 35-29 win on the road, extending Centerburg's losing streak to 10 games. The win puts Northmor over .500 at 9-8, and Centerburg dropped to 1-13.
The Golden Knights went up big early with a 9-0 run thanks to a couple of steals by Haley Dill and Brooklyn Dennison, as well as a big three-pointer by Lexi Wenger with 3:25 left. Wenger was on fire, scoring nine of her game-high 22 points to go up 11-8.
The score was 20-13 at halftime, with Centerburg mustering only five points in the second. In the third quarter, the Trojans took a 22-21 lead, but Riley Johnson of Northmor hit one from long distance to go up 24-22. The game was tied 29-29 in the final quarter when Reagan Swihart hit a layup on a fast break to secure the win. Swihart scored all five of her game points in the fourth quarter. Wenger hit six foul shots down the stretch.
Chloe Goulter and Kayla Larimore each scored eight points for Centerburg.
Neither Northmor nor Centerburg shot the ball well at 26% and 32% respectively. The two teams each had 25 rebounds, and Centerburg had eight assists with Northmor only dropping five dimes. The advantage came on the defensive end for Northmor, who had nine steals in the game with many coming at key moments.
