Hunters rebounding keeps Bismarck at bay in MAAA

By Kevin Jenkins | February 11, 2012 |

PARK HILLS — The Ste. Genevieve Hunters cleaned the boards on both ends for the first five minutes of their fifth-place semi-final game with the Bismarck Lady Indians. Able to establish the early lead, the Hunters never fell behind as they posted a 52-44 win to earn one more game in the MAAA Tournament.

Rebounding honors were shared as Hannah Klein, Jasmine Kuehn and Abby Meyer all made putbacks to start the scoring. Meyer also found her spot beyond the perimeter to fire in two threes in the first quarter.

Bismarck’s Darcy Latham and Kallie Pearl countered the Hunters threes with one each for the Lady Indians with Pearl’s shot coming at the buzzer. Latham also made a pair of assists with feeds to Bismarck’s center Brettnie Henson.

The Lady Indians were unable to close the first quarter gap until midway in the fourth quarter as the Hunters were able to make a constant change of the scoreboard with five different players scoring in each of the next two quarters.

The Hunters made a push to put the game out of reach for the Lady Indians in the third quarter with Morgan Grither starting the quarter with a three from on top of the key.

Latham, after making a defensive rebound, sent a half-court pass to an all-alone Henson under the basket for an uncontested lay-up.

Paige Schmelzle made it a 10-point game with her first three-pointer, but Tiffany Fenwick popped a two from 10 feet and Latham connected on two free throws to cut the lead down to six going into the last quarter.

The Hunters could not keep their hands off the Lady Indians in the early going of the fourth which could have played into the Lady Indians hands, going 9-10 at the free throws line in the game.

Bismarck was able to pull to within two on a basket by Latham, and a basket by Fenwick tied the score at 39-39. The tied score must have incited the Hunters as they spun off for a 7-1 run and as time was decreasing, they held the ball to eat the clock forcing the Lady Indians to foul.

Latham closed out Bismarck’s scoring with a driving lay-up and she earned a pair of free throws after a second drive which she converted to giver a team-high 11 points.

Meyer closed out her 16-point game with a pair of free throws. Ste. Genevieve outrebounded the Lady Indians 27-20.

Ste. Genevieve (12-11) will play Potosi in the fifth-place game today, and Bismarck (10-12) will travel to Viburnum on Tuesday for their next contest.

Ste. Genevieve 14 13 12 13 – 52

Bismarck 10 11 12 11 – 44

SCORING:

Ste. Genevieve – Abby Meyer 15, Morgan Grither 8, Hannah Klein 8, Paige Schmelzle 8, Elle Korenak 6, Jasmine Kuehn 6, Monica Inman 1. 3-point FG – Meyer 3, Grither, Schmelzle. (FT: 11-18)

Bismarck – Darcy Latham 11, Brettnie Henson 10, Kallie Pearl 9, Jessica Sago 8, Tiffany Fenwick 6. 3-point FG – Pearl 2, Latham. (FT: 9-10)