AGWSR rolls early, beats BCLUW

ACKLEY- A highly-energized defense coupled with a potent inside scoring punch sparked the AGWSR girls’ basketball team to a convincing 49-31 victory over BCLUW here Tuesday during Class 1A regional quarterfinal play.

 The Cougars roared early, leaping to a commanding 15-2 lead after one quarter and eventually captured the grudge-match between the two teams.

Knotted 2-all, AGWSR scored the next 13 points behind the tandem of senior Rachel Sicard and sophomore Grace Finger. The pair had a combined 24 points at halftime and 33 for the game.

“We got ourselves in a hole right away. We had no idea they would play that way on defense. They really came out after us and I had not seen that type of defense from them this season,” said BCLUW coach David Lee.

“They took Allison (Engle) away from us and we just tried to force things and made some bad passes. (Makenna) Kuper was fantastic tonight for them,” he added.

Sicard tallied four buckets in the first period and Finger had seven points had three hoops and a free throw on an and-one.

“The defense was big. We knew we needed to stop their flex cuts, we worked hard on that and it paid off,” stated AGWSR coach Laurie Gann.

The Comets made a push to make it a game in the second. BCLUW opened the quarter on a 9-2 run to pull within 17-11 and then closed to five, 19-14 on Walters’ three-point play at the 4:07 mark. Fueling the 9-2 spurt with Lizzie Garber baskets around a Jade Hammers’ three-ball and Engle two.

The Cougars answered with seven straight to finish the half with five points for Finger and Whitanie Nederhoff two to lead 26-14 at intermission.

For the full story see Tuesday's (Feb. 28) edition of the paper.