Teams Win Two In Idalia
The St. Francis High School varsity basketball teams each picked up another win on Tuesday, January 10, in Idalia, Colorado. No junior varsity games were played due to limited player numbers on the Idalia teams.
The Lady Indians earned their second win of the season by defeating the Lady Wolves 55-46. Laura Brunk scored the first basket of the evening on an offensive rebound. The Lady Indians led 5-0 when Katilin Figgins scored a basket off the fast break. Idalia tied the game at five-all at the 2:36 mark and went ahead 5-9 with 1:24 left in the quarter. The first period closed with the Lady Indians trailing 9-13.
The Lady Indians trailed by 9 early in the second period. Clarice Neitzel scored with 4:25 left in the half to trim the Idalia lead to 12-19. A free throw by Brunk cut the deficit to 15-19 at the 3:17 mark. Clarice Neitzel scored off a nice pass from Figgins with 1:24 remaining to move the score to 18-22. The Lady Indians were gaining momentum, but still trailed 21-25 at halftime.
With 46 seconds gone in the third period, the Lady Indians tied the contest at 25-all on a basket by Neitzel who received an accurate entry pass from Figgins. A basket by Kyla Bandel tied the contest at 31-all with 2:44 left in the third. With 1:48 remaining, Justice Wiley scored a stick-back basket to give the Lady Indians the lead for good (33-31). Aly Schlepp scored at the 1:11 mark to move the score to 38-34, and Wiley connected at the buzzer to give the Lady Indians a 40-34 lead after three periods.
Clarice Neitzel made a nice pass to Kaitlin Figgins who scored with 5:29 remaining to extend the lead to 45-37. Justice Wiley moved the margin to ten (47-37) with just under 5 minutes left. An Idalia trey with 20 seconds left cut the Lady Indian lead to five (51-46). The Lady Wolves conserved the clock well, fouling the Lady Indians to stop the clock, but the Lady Indians responded by making free throws to seal the win. The Lady Indians shot 20 free throws in the fourth period making eleven.
Kaitlin Figgins (16) and Clarice Neitzel (15) led the Lady Indian scoring. Justice Wiley added 10. The Lady Indians hit 18 of 38 from the free throw line. Senior Chelsea Smith scored 20 points for the Lady Wolves. Mikalea Waitman added 11 and Ashley Hurlburt scored 8. The Lady Wolves were 7 of 16 from the line.
The boys game was over almost before it started. The Indians jumped out to a 7-0 lead with just a minute gone in the contest. and led 15-0 three minutes into the game. The Wolves scored on a free throw with 2:30 left in the first period to make the score 17-1. With many different Indian players seeing playing time (and eight Indians scoring) in the first period, the Indians led 24-1 at the break.
Matt Tygart scored a basket after an nice assist by Joey McCormick to move the score to 31-1 with 6:32 left in the 2nd period. The Indians led 37-1 at halftime.
The Indians played deliberate offense and a passive zone defense throughout the second half, sometimes using as much as three minutes of clock before attempting a shot. Fourteen Indian players received playing time in the contest. Eleven Indians scored. With the starting players watching most of the game, the Indians coasted to a 49-6 win. The moved the Indian's season record to 6-3.
Four players scored six or more points for the Indians: Dylan Peter 7, Matt Tygart 6, Isaac Schiltz 6, and Steve Nelson 6. The Indians were 5 of 9 from the charity stripe. Heath and Weyerman each scored three for the Wolves. The Wolved were 4 of 6 from the line.
The teams will travel to Oakley on Friday, January 13th, to play the Plainsmen.
