RIVERDALE-The Lady Bearcats looked to stay unbeaten in non-conference play as they visited the Riverdale Falcons. A big 21-point quarter by Spencerville propelled to the 57-40 over the Lady Falcons.
“Any time we can bounce back after a tough loss, it shows a lot about our character as to how hard we work in practice,” said Spencerville head coach Greg Ekis. “I was really pleased with about 80 percent of our effort tonight especially after a tough loss last week,”
It was controlled in the opening quarter as they were able to turn things over for Riverdale and find some offensive momentum. Spencerville jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead as Gabi Croft hit both of her freebies as well as a bucket from Kirsten Wurst. The hosts responded with a three pointer to tie at four per side. Lilyan Goecke responded with a three of her own to turn things around for the quarter as they would outscore the hosts 10-5 to lead 17-9.
Both teams had their share of success in the second quarter as Riverdale was on a 5-0 scoring run to trim the deficit to three but the Bearcats responded with baskets from Wurst and Goecke to push the lead to seven, at 21-14. The Bearcats didn’t stop there as a three pointer by Croft and another bucket from Goecke stretched the lead to 12, at 26-14. The lead grew as big as 30-16, before the hosts responded with an 11-0 as a buzzer-beater drew the advantage to 30-27.
“We did a great job early on of turning them over and I think we also had a letdown at the end of the second quarter that allowed them to get back into the game,” Ekis said.
The third quarter was all Bearcats to put the game out of reach. A quick 6-0 run by the Bearcats as a basket by Emme Prine extended the lead to 36-27 advantage that forced a Riverdale timeout. Riverdale had an answer of a 5-0 scoring run but Heidi Keller put the damage on after that. Keller buried three straight shots from downtown as the lead stretched to 49-31.
In the final quarter, the Bearcats played keep away to run some time off the clock. Goecke chipped in four points as part of her game high 17 points as the Bearcats improved to 5-2 on the season.
Spencerville will be back in action on Thursday, when they travel to take on the Leipsic Vikings in conference play.
“We got a tough week with coming in here tonight and then going to Leipsic on Thursday as it’s also a long week for us, so we are looking forward to playing another great NWC team,” Ekis concluded.
Spencerville 17 – 13 – 21 – 6 – 57
Riverdale 9 – 18 – 7 – 6 – 40
Spencerville (57)
Lilyan Goecke (17) Kirsten Wurst (14) Gabi Croft (13) Heidi Keller (9) Emme Prine (2)
Riverdale (40)
Carrigan Vent (15) Paige Rothisberger (10) Mariah Bonham (4) Lainie Howell (2) Harlee Gonzalez (4) Reagan Mckinniss (2) Kinsey Shull (2)
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