5 hours Ago By By Ron Haramia Sports Writer
LAKEVILLE - For only the second time in the past 10 years, the high school girls basketball teams from Glenn and Culver Community met, this time in the semifinals of the Everwise Bi-County Tournament at Dale E. Cox Gymnasium on the campus of LaVille HS Thursday night. Led by two big scoring spurts, it was the Lady Falcons coming out on top, 37-28, over the Lady Cavaliers.
The win puts Glenn into Saturday night’s championship game where it will meet Bremen at 6:30 p.m. At the outset it looked like it was going to be a runaway win for the Lady Falcons.
Three 3-pointers, including two by Addison Reese, were part of an 11-0 start to the game. “We were wondering how they were going to play us (defensively),” said Coach Reese of the quick start. “They stayed with their foundation, a 2-3 zone.
They’re solid. They disrupted us a little bit up high as the game went on, but when you start like we did, that just builds confidence. We needed that.
We didn’t play great (in the Bi-Co opener) against Argos (Wednesday).” As exciting as the initial scoring spree was, the most exciting play in the first quarter came as the buzzer sounded when Culver’s Ava McCune swished a shot from half-court to avoid being shut out. The Lady Cavaliers then used the adrenaline lift from that long distance heave to outscore Glenn, 11-4, in the second quarter to get back into the game.
Included in Culver’s impressive run was Ashlynn Berndt’s buzzer-beating triple that was on the same line as McCune’s, but just a little bit closer and cut Glenn’s lead to a single point at halftime. Ashlynn Berndt’s second 3 of the game came with 3:00 left in the third quarter and the Lady Cavs had finally pulled even, but the game turned shortly thereafter. Over the rest of the third frame and the first four minutes of the fourth, Glenn scored 16 unanswered points and led, 35-19.
“That allows you to do some things you couldn’t do before,” Reese said of finally enjoying a comfortable lead. “When you can build a lead, that’s huge, especially in tournament play when you never know what is going to happen. That takes some weight off our girls’ shoulders too.
You don’t have to play from behind and feel like you have to score.” Key to that second-half spurt were five straight points from the Lady Falcons’ Daelyn Nance. “She works her tail off,” said Reese of the senior.
“The last third to half of the season, she has played her heart out. She can score around the basket, but what she really gives us is rebounding. She gets good position underneath and works hard.
When that ball goes up, she is ready to get it.” Addison Reese added her third trey of the game during that pivotal stretch and Rory Winchell hit one too. Brianna Schlemmer ended Culver’s eight-minute long cold stretch when she nailed her second 3 of the contest with 2:51 remaining in the game.
The junior hit another at the 1:01 mark as part of a nine-point mini-run by the Cavs to close within seven, but two free throws by Glenn ended up being the final points of the contest. “I really feel good about how smart our girls are, knowing the game,” concluded Reese. “If we can hold teams defensively, it gives you a chance because you don’t always get the scoring that you need.
” Eight players scored in the Lady Falcons’ balanced attack, led by nine from Reese and eight by Nance. Schlemmer led Culver with nine. McCune and Ashlynn Berndt added six apiece.
([email protected]) Bi-County semifinals At Lakeville CULVER: Ava McCune 2 1-4 6, Brynn Berndt 1 3-4 5, Ashlynn Berndt 2 0-0 6, Brianna Schlemmer 3 0-0 9, Brooke Davis 0 0-0 0, Amiyah Williams 1 0-4 2. TOTALS: 9 4-12 28.
GLENN: Alivia Turnage 1 3-4 5, Danni Divine 1 0-0 3, Addison Reese 3 0-0 9, Daelynn Nance 3 2-3 8, Rory Winchell 1 0-0 3, Mia Hurford 2 1-2 5, Calleigh Reese 0 0-0 0, Andreia Weddington 0 2-2 2, Arianna Stanley 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 12 8-11 37. Score by quarters Culver 3 14 19 28 Glenn 11 15 27 37 3-pointers: Glenn 5 (A.
Reese 3, Divine, Winchell), Culver 6 (Schlemmer 3, A. Berndt 2, McCune). Fouls (fouled out): Glenn 9 (none), Culver 12 (B.
Berndt). Records: Glenn 14-7, Culver 12-8.
