Lady Pirates clinch seventh-straight KMAC title
Recovering from team illness, lost practice and a rare lost game, the Cardington-Lincoln Lady Pirates focused on the task at hand and secured their seventh consecutive KMAC league title with a 50-32 romp over Mount Gilead on Saturday, Jan. 29. The win improved C-L to 15-1 this season and 11-0 in KMAC play, increasing its consecutive KMAC winning streak to 68 games.
Cardington-Lincoln has started slowly in many games this season, but it targeted in on staying calm and strong and took a 14-9 lead in the first, jump-started by Mikayla Linkous’ two threes in an eight-point first.
In the second, the Lady Pirates were a defensive swarm, forcing eight turnovers and holding the Indians to two points to earn a 24-11 lead at the break. Beth Hardwick swished two threes in the second.
The third was slow-paced as the Indians cut the lead to 11, but C-L ramped up with a 17-10 final quarter to bring home the 18-point victory and the league crown.
C-L had six scorers in the game, led by Hardwick with 14 and Linkous with 13. Karsyn Edwards added eight. Mount Gilead was led by Madilyn Ellson with eight.
Bulldogs vs. Bulldogs: East Knox, up by 10 at half, beat Heath, 48-32
The East Knox Lady Bulldogs traveled to Heath on Jan. 27 to play their Lady Bulldogs and built up a 10-point lead at halftime to cruise to a 48-32 win. The EK girls improved to 9-9, 5-6 in KMAC, and the Heath girls fell to 2-12 and 2-3 in the Licking County Conference.
In the first, Laura Keith banged in five points to lead a trio of EK scorers as East Knox took a 13-7 lead. In the second, Keith put in five again to lead East Knox to a 23-13 halftime lead.
In the third, Shanda Melick sank three from two-point range, Alexandria Magers hit two buckets, and Keith drained her third three of the game – one in each quarter thus far – for East Knox. Heath answered EK’s 13 points in the quarter with 14 of their own, but were still behind by nine, 36-27 after three.
The fourth quarter saw five EK scorers sink a basket apiece and Magers added two free throws to her bucket, as the local Lady Bulldogs put a 12-5 quarter together over the Heath Pups.
East Knox had scoring contributions from five players in the game, but most of the damage was done by three of them, who combined for 43 points. Melick finished with 17, Keith scored 15 and Magers popped in 11.
Fredericktown puts up huge OT numbers to beat Centerburg
Fredericktown and Centerburg needed an extra five minutes to finish their conference matchup last week hosted by the Trojans, and while Centerburg fought hard to come back and put the game into overtime, the extra frame was all Fredericktown with a 60-46 win.
With the win, the Freddies improved to 13-6 and are 7-4 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference, at third place according to the league website. Centerburg’s struggles continued as the team is 1-15 overall and seeking its first win in the conference at 0-11.
The Freddies came out with a 15-5 advantage in the first quarter thanks to Audrey Bouton, who scored eight points in the opening quarter. Cally Carpenter also drained a three while Jill Bouton and Gabby Daniels rounded out the scoring.
Centerburg turned the tables in the second quarter, outscoring Fredericktown 12-9. After Bouton went off in the first frame, Centerburg bounced back to allow only one more basket from her. Kennedi Glen scored all six of her points in the second quarter on a pair of threes.
The Freddies held a 24-17 advantage going into the second half and while Fredericktown outscored the Trojans 10-7 in the third quarter, Centerburg had its sights on a come back in the fourth, outscoring the Freddies 17-7 to put the game into overtime. Chloe Goulter scored seven points and Kayla Larimore added six of her own to propel the game into extra time.
It was dramatic down the stretch as Centerburg clawed its way back into the game, but the overtime was completely dominated by the Carpenter- and Bouton-led Freddies, who put the game easily out of reach, outscoring the Trojans 19-5. Bouton scored seven points, including a big make from downtown while Carpenter did an excellent job going to the line with nine free throws. She made 10 of 12 shots from the line in the game.
Fredericktown’s Carpenter led all scorers with a 21-point showing, including going 3-for-6 from 3-point range. She also had four boards, three assists and four steals. Audrey Bouton had 20 points and 10 boards. She added two steals, a block and an assist.
Chloe Goulter had 19 points for the Trojans to lead scorers. Larimore also hit double figures with 11 points.
Danville holds off Harvest Prep in fourth, 55-50
On Jan. 29, the Danville Blue Devils traveled to Harvest Prep and came away with a five-point victory to improve to 13-4 in a non-conference win. Danville is 8-2 in the KMAC and sit in second place.
Danville went up 10-7 early with threes by Kylee Hess and Alenah Boeshart. The strong play for the Blue Devils continued in the second quarter with a 16 point showing led by a pair of threes by Ella Proper, but the team was outscored 17-16 by Harvest Prep thanks to five points by Brooklyn Forney, who helped make it a 24-16 game at the half in favor of Harvest Prep.
The Danville defense came out ready in the third quarter, limiting Harvest Prep to only seven points while scoring 15 of their own. Proper was the main producer with seven points to give the Danville squad a 10 point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Harvest Prep came out firing in the fourth quarter with 19 points, but Danville managed 15 points and were able to fend off a final push for the Warriors.
Proper led the Danville squad in scoring with 16 points while Brooklynn Hess scored 11 points in the win.
The Warriors were led by Forney, who scored 12 points on the night. Also reaching double figures was Christyn Anthony with 10 points.
The loss for the Warriors give the team a 10-9 record, putting them at 5-4 in the Mid State Cardinal Conference.
