Elmwood-Murdock rallies to beat EB girls
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - 7:11 pm
By Kreig Ritter
Banner-Press Sports Editor
The East Butler girls' basketball team came agonizingly close to handing the last unbeaten Class
C-2 team its first loss, but Elmwood-Murdock had other ideas.
C-2 team its first loss, but Elmwood-Murdock had other ideas.
The Knights rallied in the final minutes for a 32-28 victory.
The game was a defensive slugfest. The two teams combined to shot just 20 percent (19-of-94) from the floor. Elmwood-Murdock (19-0) missed 18 shots in a row in the first half. The teams combined to score just once over the final four minutes of the first quarter and not at all over the last four minutes of the third.
"They played a little bit different zone. I thought some shots were there, but they forced us a bit more to the outside and took away some of our inside game," Elmwood-Murdock Coach Justin Moline said.
Both teams had specific defensive game plans.
"We knew they had two great players that we were going to do everything we could to stop," East Butler Coach Gerry Reinsch said. "We doubled (Megan) Schmale in the post and shadowed (Megan) Scholting. We had to take them out of the game, but they had the same plan for us with Marissa (Bongers)," Reinsch said.
Schmale and Scholting, who combined for 41 points in the Knights' 63-53 win over the Tigers Dec. 19, finished with 17 combined points.
Bongers was held to a season-low nine points, only getting to the foul line three times.
"I guess our goal was to keep Bongers from hurting us. We wanted to keep from giving her lanes so she could create shots and get to the foul line. She's a darned good player, so we had to slow her down," Moline said.
Schmale was held in check most of the night, but came through in the clutch to lift the Knights to the victory.
Bongers hit a three-pointer, one of just two treys for the Tigers (15-3) in 20 attempts, to give the team a 27-23 lead with 2:45 left in the game.
Schmale scored off the Erin Dwyer assist 19 seconds later to cut the lead to two.
Just seconds after a timeout, Schmale stole the ball and went in for the game-tying layup with 2:12 remaining.
"I got little greedy there trying to get one more shot to put them away. We should have worked the ball and run time off the clock and they would have had to foul us," Reinsch said.
The Tigers' Chelsea Komenda missed a three-point attempt. Schmale scored again at the other end to give the Knights their first lead since the first lead since the 6:15 mark of the second quarter.
"Megan's just an aggressive player with a lot of confidence. She's been part of quality teams in softball, volleyball and basketball, so she has a lot of confidence to take those kinds of shots," Moline said.
Another long range shot by Komenda didn't fall. The Tigers forced a held ball, but the Knights had possession. They nearly forced a five-second call on the inbounds, but the Knights got their last timeout called.
The Knights' Ali Kuhlman hit the front end of a one-and-one with 16.1 seconds left.
Bongers attacked the basket, nearly getting the shot to fall as she was fouled.
The senior hit one of the two free throws to cut the lead to two.
Kuhlman hit two free throws with four seconds left to clinch the game.
East Butler put itself in position to win thanks to that extended first half run where the Knights couldn't make a field goal.
Bongers scored off a steal and layup with 2:43 left in the first half to put the Tigers up by five.
Kylee Sisel drilled a three-pointer with 1:33 left to increase that lead to 15-7, capping a 12-1 run.
East Butler had the ball with a chance to go up by double digits, but Erica Stubbendeck stole the ball and was fouled attempting the free throw. She hit both foul shots with 53.6 seconds left.
Schmale hit a shot with 23 seconds left to cut the lead to 15-11.
Bongers converted a three-point play with 4:33 left in the third to put the Tigers up 20-15. They wouldn't score again for over seven minutes, missing 10 field goal attempts in a row.
Free throws made a huge difference in both meetings between the teams this season. The Tigers missed eight out of 14 attempts from the line Saturday, getting outscored 13-6 there. In the two games, the Knights shot 78 percent (39-of-50) from the line while the Tigers shot 49 percent (18-of-37).
"Free throws have been big at times. We've had a few games where we've missed some free throws and it hurt us, then tonight, we didn't get to the foul line enough in the second half," Reinsch said.
While the Tigers were disappointed with the loss, there was much they could take from the game, not the least of which was their defensive effort against a team of Elmwood-Murdock's caliber.
"From a confidence standpoint, the girls should be feeling good about themselves," Reinsch said.
"We played one of the top teams in C-2, a bigger school and we were right there with a chance to win the game."
Bongers added nine rebounds, four steals and three assists for East Butler. Brittany Karber had 10 rebounds and seven points before leaving the game with a knee injury in the final seconds. Donnita Helman had nine rebounds and six points.
Schmale grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds for the Knights. Stubbendeck scored seven points. Scholting had eight rebounds.
East Butler hosted Cross County Tuesday. The Tigers host Malcolm Saturday. They will be at the Subdistrict D1-1 tournament at David City next week. It appears they will take on either Scribner-Snyder or College View Academy in the semifinals.
East Butler 5 10 5 8-28
Elm-Murdock 6 5 4 17-32
EB - Komenda 1-6 0-1 2, Sisel 1-8 1-2 4, Bongers 3-20 2-3 9, Karber 2-4 2-6 7, Helman 3-6 0-2 6, Aerts 0-0 0-0 0, Janak 0-0 0-0 0, Rech 0-5 0-0 0. Totals: 10-49 6-14 28.
EM - Kuhlman 0-4 4-7 4, Scholting 1-5 2-2 5, Stubbendeck 1-11 5-6 7, S. Dwyer 1-5 2-2 5, Schmale 6-10 0-0 12, E. Dwyer 0-9 0-0 0, Novak 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 9-45 13-17 32.
Three-point goals: EM 2-20 (Komenda 0-4, Ky. Sisel 1-5, Bongers 1-10, Rech 0-1), EM 1-9 (Kuhlman 0-1, Scholting 1-4, Stubbendeck 0-2, E. Dwyer 0-2). Rebounds: EB 39 (Karber 10), EM 37 (Schmale 13). Assists: EB 6 (Bongers 3), EM 5 (Kuhlman 3). Steals: EB 8 (Bongers 4), EM 4 (Stubbendeck 2). Turnovers: EB 7, EM 11. Total fouls: EB 15, EM 14. Fouled out: none.
