Hoxie Girls Just Too Good
They are good.......no, they are VERY good! The #2 ranked Hoxie Lady Indians used smothering defense and quick offensive conversions to rout the visiting St. Francis Lady Indians on Friday evening, February 1st. The defending state champions were in full command from the start, leading 0-10 just over two minutes into the contest. After a Hoxie trey at the 5:20 mark of the first quarter, the Lady Indians trailed 0-13 and soon found themselves down by a large margin. With approximately two minutes left in the first period, and leading 0-26, Hoxie took off the stifling full court pressure. The Lady Indians trailed 0-33 after one quarter of play.
Hoxie led 0-37 before Clarice Neitzel removed the "goose egg" from the St. Francis side of the scoreboard when she scored at the 6:40 mark of the second period. Aubrey Mills drained a trey on the next Lady Indian possession, off an assist by Valerie Wurm. At 4:58, Laura Brunk scored an offensive rebound basket to move the score to 7-45. At 4:03, Brunk scored again, on a long deuce, to make the score 9-49. After baskets by Aby Fernandez and Kyla Bandel (assist Clarice Neitzel), the Lady Indians trailed 13-52. The first half closed with the Lady Indians hustling well, but trailing 15-59.
The Lady Indians got scores from Justice Wiley and Aubrey Mills in the early going of the third period, but trailed 18-78 at the 2:11 mark. Kyla Bandel nailed a three-ball with 1:30 left in the third period. The Lady Indians trailed 21-84 after three periods.
The final period was played with a running clock due to the 30-point rule. Kyla drained another trey, and Clarice Neitzel scored on an assist from Bandel, to get St. Francis within sixty (26-86) early in the fourth period. The Lady Indians got baskets from Laura Brunk and Kyla Bandel (a trey) in the final minutes to make the final score 33-93. The Hoxie Lady Indians (12-0) again showed their dominance in Western Kansas, winning by a large margin. This season, no team has played Hoxie closer than 26 points (Ellis lost to Hoxie 67-41 on Dec. 8). Since then, no team has been closer than 41 points.
Kyla Bandel scored 13 points to pace the St. Francis girls. Laura Brunk added 7, and Clarice Neitzel 6. The Lady Indians were 4-9 from the free throw line.
Kristina Farber (5' 10 Jr.) led the Hoxie team with 22 points. Danel Stithem (5' 8" Sr.) added 14, as did Carly Heim (5' 7" So). Lexi Shamberger (5' 8" So.) chipped in 10, and Sarah Farber (5' 7" Sr.) added 9. The Hoxie girls connected on 9 of 20 from the charity stripe.
The junior varsity game was much the same. The Lady Indians had trouble running any offense against the defensive pressure applied by Hoxie and fell behind 1-23 after one quarter of play. The Lady Indians trailed 1-39 at halftime.
Journey Lee scored two baskets in the third period to advance the score to 5-48. Aby Fernandez and Kylie Sherlock added a free throw each to bring the score to 7-50 after three periods. The Lady Indians lost to Hoxie 7-65.
The Lady Indians will play Triplains-Brewster on Saturday, February 2nd in St. Francis. Next week, the team will be on the road to play Quinter on Friday, February 8th.
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