Loyal girls rally back to defeat Marshfield Columbus at home

By Valorie Brecht In an exciting turn of events, the Loyal Greyhounds came from behind to win over the Marshfield Columbus Dons at home Friday night.

Heading into the game, Loyal held a record of 6-4 and Columbus 5-4 in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference, indicating it could be anybody’s game. The Greyhounds girls narrowly lost their matchup against Columbus earlier in the season, 37-34, so they came into the game hungry for redemption. But it would not be easy.

Columbus got the first basket of the evening, followed by Jordynn Corder sinking a free throw for the Loyal girls. However, it didn’t take long for Columbus to go on a scoring streak and get ahead 8 points, the score 11-3. Loyal rallied back somewhat, starting with Addysen Wolf making a 3-pointer from up top, which she did again a minute later, and Autumn Zvolena knocking down a three shortly after that.

Loyal’s Sheila Tellock hit a jumper as the team neared the final five minutes of the half, to bring the score to 1714, Loyal still trailing. Over the next five minutes, though, Columbus pulled away once more. Loyal’s shot attempts were all no good and the buzzer sounded with Columbus leading 24-14.

Over the first half, Columbus defended relentlessly and knocked away a few Loyal passes. Both teams were heavy on turnovers.

“We were a little careless with the ball in the first half, but that’s kind of been who we’ve been. So, if we can create a lot of turnovers, turn the other team over, and if we have some turnovers and we can get that to be a wash — I hate to say that, because it’s not good basketball, but for us, we’re OK with that,” said Loyal coach Mike Rueth. “But I just thought our energy level in the second half, we really turned them over quite a bit in the second half and that really was the difference in the game.”

Loyal had 13 turnovers in all, while Columbus had more than twice as many with 28.

The Loyal girls indeed came out with more energy in the second half, but it didn’t immediately translate into more points. Rather, the Dons took charge with Courtney Sommer scoring 2 points right out of the gate, 10 seconds into the half. Not long after that, Columbus’ Sam Casperson put in a layup to make it 28-14. Suddenly the Greyhounds were staring into the face of a 14-point gap. Rueth called a timeout.

“When we got down by 14 in the start of the second half, because we were struggling at scoring, I was a bit worried. But, when we took the timeout, we just talked about getting stops on defense (and) have a good possession on offense,” he said.

That’s what the Greyhounds did. Over the next five minutes, the Hounds built back gradually with baskets from Wolf, Tellock, Zvolena and Summer Smith. Zvolena once again proved an asset by the hoop, as she grabbed an offensive rebound and turned it into a score. Wolf and Tellock each caught a fast break that resulted in a score. Tellock launched a 3-pointer that went up and in.

“I thought we took really good shots tonight; in the first half we didn’t make those shots and in the second half those shots went in,” explained Rueth.

By the time there was 12:20 on the clock, Loyal was back in the game, although still trailing by 5 with a score of 3227. Over the next few minutes, Columbus became a little flustered as Loyal got more aggressive on defense, while the Loyal crowd stomped the bleachers and cheered to try and distract the Dons.

At 10 minutes left, Smith missed a shot but Mallory Jakobi snagged the rebound and put it in for a Loyal score. That made it 34-32. Next, Smith stole a Columbus pass, dribbled down the court and made a quick pass to Corder, who made the basket to tie the game. On the next play, Smith stole the ball again and this time was fouled on her way to the hoop to turn it into a 3-point play. Just like that, Loyal was ahead 37-34. Columbus got called for a travel on the next possession and their coach called a timeout, at which point the Loyal crowd erupted into applause.

The teams battled hard over the next few minutes as the clock ticked by, tying at 40 and 41. In the last six minutes of the game, though, the Greyhounds were able to pull away while the Dons seemingly ran out of steam. Loyal scored 20 more points while Columbus only mustered 8.

If Loyal’s shots started to fall towards the end of the game, unfortunately for Columbus it went the opposite way. That being said, Columbus still made an impressive effort ending with a corner 3-pointer to bring it to 55-49 with a minute left to play. Thankfully for the Hounds, just after that, Wolf got a fast break and made a quick pass to Smith, which she put in for a layup. That was followed by Tellock getting fouled upon twice and both times sinking both shots to put away the game for Loyal, with a final score of 60-49.

Rueth said Tellock came in clutch in her team’s victory. “Sheila Tellock has been playing on a bad foot. And in warmups tonight she turned her ankle again on that same foot. So we didn’t even know if she was going to play. She didn’t get a lot of minutes to start the game, but we needed her at the end. She led us again in scoring tonight and hit some big free throws at the end of the game. So she was outstanding… She stood out on offense,” he said.

Tellock scored 17 points, including two 3-pointers. She was perfect from the free throw line, going five-for-five.

Wolf was the Hounds’ next highest scorer, with 13. She made three 3-pointers and sunk both of her free throws. She also had seven rebounds. Zvolena scored 9 points and had six rebounds, including two on offense. Olivia Nikolai and Smith each had 8 points. Nikolai made two 3-pointers.

Smith had one. She also had six steals, showing her scrappiness on defense.

“I think Summer Smith gave us a boost defensively off the bench because with her high energy level, I think our kids feed off of that. So she really played well tonight,” said Rueth.

Other scorers were Corder with 3 points and Jakobi with 2.

Loyal shot for 50% from beyond the arc, making nine of 18 shots. The team’s total field goal percentage was 39%, slightly higher than Columbus’ 33%. Loyal collected 21 rebounds while Columbus had 35.

The victory added to Loyal’s string of wins, three in a row as of Jan. 31.

Sheila Tellock sinks a shot from behind the 3-point line in Loyal’s victory over the Dons Jan. 26. Tellock was the top scorer for the Greyhounds, earning 17 of the team’s points during the game.

VALORIE BRECHT/STAFF PHOTOS

Autumn Zvolena makes a 3-point shot for the Greyhounds.