Junior A-Team Defeats Lady Devils
The junior high girls basketball teams opened their 2018 season with games versus the Decatur Community Lady Red Devils on Thursday, November 1. The games were played in St. Francis. In the A-team contest, St. Francis defeated Decatur Community (DC) by a score of 35-30. The Lady Indian B-team lost to Decatur Community 9-19.
St. Francis opened the scoring in the A-team contest receiving a left-baseline basket from Ellee Krien. It did not take the Lady Devils long to answer, as soon, Gabbie Vontz scored on a drive. It would be the only two baskets scored in the first half of the first period, but the teams would exchange baskets at a more rapid rate throughout the remainder of the contest. After Krien scored on an out-of-bounds play, DC's Breyana Gehring followed with a post basket at the opposite end of the floor. The next two baskets would come on offensive rebounds, one by Rian Zimbal for St. Francis and one by Ellie Anderson for DC. Late in the quarter, Krien scored in the lane to give St. Francis an 8-6 lead, but Rayne Erickson nailed a shot from the right baseline completing an out-of-bounds play to make the score 8-all at the first quarter break.
Jesslynn Houtman opened the second quarter scoring with two free-throws. As they had done throughout the first quarter, DC soon responded with a basket, this one by Gehring from the right elbow. At 3:48 St. Francis called time-out and made some defensive adjustments. Though the Lady Devils would take the lead for the first time (10-12) just after the time-out, the Lady Indians' defensive pressure soon began to increase the pace of the contest and the resulting turnovers by DC resulted in several additional shot attempts for the Lady Indians. Two free-throws, one by Rian Zimbal and one by Bree DeWaal, tied the contest at 12-all, and soon the Lady Indians scored 10 unanswered points to lead 20-12 at the halftime break. In the action, Ellee Krien and Zimbal each scored two baskets with the final score coming on a steal-assist by Molly Gilliland. St. Francis lead 20-12 at halftime.
Avery Witt scored the first bucket of the second half for the Lady Devils on a shot from the right elbow. Rian Zimbal soon answered with a post basket after a nice assist from Ellee Krien. Vontz then answered two Krien charity shots with a left-wing trey. An offensive rebound by Jesslynn Houtman, a top-of-the-key trey by Krien, and mid-post basket by Zimbal quickly moved the margin to 31-17. The score stood at 31-19 after three quarters of play with the addition of an out-of-bounds play basket by Witt.
The Lady Devils would make another run before the game concluded. A nice assist from Vontz to Gehring led to a lay-up for the Red Devils. Molly Gilliland answered from the post after an assist from Rian Zimbal (33-21). The Lady Red Devils would score the next three baskets to trim the margin to 33-27. With about a minute to play, Ellee Krien added a score from the free-throw area aiding the Lady Indians cause. The only additional score was a deep right-wing trey by Gehring. St. Francis defeated the Decatur Community Lady Red Devils 35-30.
The Red Devils were led in scoring by Breyana Gehring with 13 points and Gabbie Vontz with 7. Scoring for St. Francis were: Ellee Krien 17, Rian Zimbal 11, Jesslynn Houtman 4, Molly Gilliland 2, and Bree DeWaal 1.
The Lady Indians will play Hoxie, in Hoxie, on Tuesday, November 6.
Click the photos to see more photos!
