Indians Teams Sweep Bulldogs
The St. Francis teams swept the Golden Plains Bulldogs in high school basketball action on Saturday afternoon, January 9th. The local teams won all three games played. There was no junior varsity girls game due to a limited number of players. The games were make-up games for those postponed from the previous Tuesday due to slick roads and cold temperatures.
The junior varsity boys game was an exciting game with the Indians winning a close contest by a score of 37-36. The Indians led 9-6 after one quarter and 18-11 at halftime. The Indians extended the lead in the 3rd period to 31-18. The Bulldogs came back strong on a 12 point fourth quarter performance by Macher to nearly overtake the Indians. The Indians held on to win by a narrow one point margin. Jonathan Butler scored 15 to lead the Indians. Dylan Peter scored 9 points.
In varsity girls action, the Lady Indians again showed significant improvement in skills and execution and defeated the Lady Bulldogs 55-42. The Lady Indians started slow, falling behind 2-10 early in the contest and trailing 6-10 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs extended their lead over the Lady Indians. The halftime score was St. Francis 12 - Golden Plains 22.
The Lady Indians had an outstanding third quarter. The full court defensive pressure of the Lady Indians caused several Golden Plains turnovers. The Lady Indians tied the game at 27 on a basket by Kaitlin Figgins with 3:45 remaining in the period. Sarah Trembly connected on a trey with 2:34 left to give the Lady Indians a 31-27 lead. The Lady Indians missed very few of their shot attempts in the period and scored 30 points to take a commanding 42-29 lead by the end of the third quarter. The Lady Indians outscored Golden Plains 30-7 in the period.
St Francis continued to play well in the final period and held a 50-37 lead with 3:52 remaining. The Lady Indians won their second consecutive game by a 55-42 margin.
All Lady Indians who played in the contest scored five or more points.. Sarah Trembly led the Lady Indians with 12 points. Figgins scored 8. Christina Hilt and Jodie Hilt each contributed 7 points. The Lady Bulldogs were led by Luna with 17 and Ritter with nine.
In varsity boys action, the Indians soundly defeated the Bulldogs by a score of 52-34. After connecting on three consecutive three point attempts against the Bulldog zone, the Indians jumped out to an 18-6 lead with 2:17 to go in the first quarter. The Indians were in command 20-7 at the end of the quarter. The Indians continued to play well and led 33-20 at halftime.
The Indians shot well in the third quarter, again making several treys to extend the lead to 41-24 by the end of three quarters. The Indians won the game in convincing fashion, 52-34.
Matt Raile scored 20 points in the contest to lead the Indians. Trent Raile scored 11, Brett Lampe 9, Isaac Schiltz, 7 and Garrett Figgins 5. Shaw led the Bulldog scoring with 12 points; Preston added 10.
Coach Beims had the following comments about the game.
"We got out of the gate quickly against a scrappy Golden Plains team, scoring 20 in the first quarter. We have a tendency to let off the gas when we get a comfortable lead, and we allowed Golden Plains to hang around longer than I would have liked."
"Defensively we played real well. I have to tip my hat to Isaac Schiltz and Brett Lampe who combined to hold their leading scorer scoreless. Although, we have a team philosophy to our man defense, and everybody contributed, those two worked their tails off to make sure he never got comfortable. As I’ve said before, if you can hold your opponent to less than forty points, you will win most of those games"
Next action for the teams will be on Tuesday evening, January 12th, when the teams travel to Idalia, Colorado.
