Lady Rebels poised to place second in LTC
By Gary Steward
WYOMING – Monday night the Stark County girls basketball team took on a good, young ROWVA-Williamsfield team and came away with a 61-27 victory.
Olivia Hopp threw in 19 points for the Lady Rebels, Riley Menssen had 14 and McKenzie Stahl contributed 10 to lead SC in scoring while Kelsey Berchtold and Lexi Davis controlled the boards with good defensive efforts.
The Lady Tigers struggled to score and Abby Stowe and Jenna Woodside each had six points to lead the attack.
The Lady Rebels own a 21-8 season record and are 6-2 in the Lincoln Trail Conference race.
Stark County was to play West Central Wednesday night at home for Senior Night in the final regular season game and, with a win, will place second in the LTC behind only Princeville, the No. 5 ranked team in Class 1A.
Prior to Monday’s victory, the Lady Rebels made their sixth and final trip to Woodhull last Wednesday. The first quarter was played evenly with Stark County holding a 10-9 advantage. Coach Scott Paxson was forced to sit Kelsey Berchtold with two fouls and Ridgewood managed to outscore SC 11-5 to take a halftime lead of 20-15.
But the tables turned in the third quarter, with Stark County winning the quarter 13-3 and Berchtold throwing in eight points during the run for a 28-23 SC lead going into the fourth.
Ridgewood then made a run but fell short as SC made 5 of 6 free throws to ice the win, 41-30.
The evening featured another balanced scoring attack for SC with Hopp leading with 13, Berchtold adding 11 and McKenzie Stahl tallying 10. Riley Menssen and Lexi Davis also had good games.
Stark County opens the postseason as a No. 3 seed in their sub-sectional and will face Galva in the ROWVA Regional at Oneida on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Princeville – After receiving a No. 2 seed in its sub-sectional, Princeville triumphed over West Central Monday, 58-43, to clinch the LTC title for the second year in a row. Princeville has won 18 straight.
“It wasn’t our best game, but we played well enough to win,” Coach John Gross said.
Caitlyn Thole led the Lady Princes with 23 points and 12 rebounds.
Princeville (26-3, 8-0 LTC) won big over United last Wednesday, 58-22. The Lady Princes dominated throughout, outscoring United 31-9 in the first half and 27-13 in the second.
Brinlee Bauman led Princeville with 14 points followed by Emma Lane and Morissa Martin with 10 points apiece.
The Lady Princes were to play Mercer County Wednesday at home and close the regular season at Knoxville on Thursday.
“We need to get these two games out of the way and then focus on the post season,” Gross said, “We know and are very familiar with the teams we have to beat.”
Galva – Annawan (15-13, 6-2 LTC) stayed in the hunt for second place with a 63-28 victory over Galva on Tuesday.
Emily Miller had 21 points, Cassidy Miller had 15 points and Keagan Rico had 12 points for Annawan. Galva’s Kali Yelm had 13 points.
