Greyhound girls split final two ECC games
The Loyal girls basketball team used one of its trademark early runs Monday night to close the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference regular season with a 54-41 at Owen-Withee. The win improved Loyal’s ECC mark to 13-3 as it prepares to play Fall Creek on Feb. 22 in the conference second-place cross-over game. It will start at 6 p.m., at Osseo-Fairchild. The league title game between Neillsville and Osseo-Fairchild will follow. At Owen-Withee, Loyal jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never led by less than that margin the rest of the night. Katlyn Lindner hit a pair of early 3-pointers as Loyal went ahead 13-2 after six minutes of play on its way to a 29-11 halftime lead. The Greyhounds nailed five 3-pointers in the first half alone.
Loyal drained two more long-range shots in the second half to give it seven for the game, on 16 attempts. Overall, the Greyhounds shot 46 percent (18-39) from the floor, and went 11-19 at the free-throw line.
Loyal had a balanced scoring night, with four players in double figures. Remi Geiger led with 13 points, Lindner scored 12, and Savannah Schley and Bailey Bravener each scored 11.
Loyal built a 19-11 lead with under six minutes to play in the first half, but Columbus scored the last seven points to make it a 1-point contest at the break.
The game was very tight in the second half, with neither team leading by more than four points until there were just two minutes left. Columbus went on top 39-34 at that point and Loyal could never get back to even. Geiger’s two free throws with 29 seconds to go brought the Greyhounds to within 41-38, but they were forced to foul after that and Columbus made three of six foul shots to close it out.
Columbus shot 34 percent (14-41) overall, hit three of nine 3-point attempts, and went 13-23 at the line.
Schley’s 12 points led Loyal. Geiger and Kayla Bremmer each scored eight.
Owen-Withee hit 37 percent (13-32) of its shots overall, went 3-11 from 3-point distance, and was 6-11 at the line.
Columbus 44 Loyal 38
Loyal was as cold as the winter snow during an upset home loss to Marshfield Columbus on Feb. 14. The Greyhounds managed only a 23 percent shooting night, and misfi red on 11 of 14 attempts from 3-point range. Free throws kept Loyal close as it hit 13 of 20.
Greenwood stays in third with win over Granton
Granton’s Noah McConkey drives to the hoop between Greenwood’s Nathan Revier (32) and Cooper Bredlau during the Indians’ 55-43 home win over the Bulldogs on Feb. 13. McConkey scored 20 points for Granton, but Westen Schmitz countered with 21 points for Greenwood and Quintin Myers added 10 as Greenwood solidified its hold on third place in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
Greenwood girls beat Granton
Greenwood’s Jasmine Wolf (at left) goes to the basket against Granton’s Jaden Gardner during the Indians’ 57-29 Eastern Cloverbelt Conference win over the Bulldogs on Feb. 13 in Greenwood. The Indians also knocked off Owen-Withee 44-42 the following night to move into seventh place in the season-ending ECC standings. Amanda Bogdonovich scored 17 points for Greenwood against Owen-Withee and Mesa Rasmussen added nine.
Much money mustered in mad minute
Greenwood students organized a “mad minute” money collection during the Feb. 13 home girls and boys basketball games against Granton, to raise funds for Granton student Alex Mendieta, who has a rare condition that is robbing him of his eyesight. In just one minute, folks in the crowd tossed $725 into the collection hat to help the family with expenses. Granton teacher Annette Woller (center) accepted the check from the Greenwood students.
CHEYENNE THOMAS/STAFF PHOTO
