Tongue River Girls Remain Undefeated By Topping Lovell Again [VIDEO]

Highlights of the Saturday, January 19th Girls Basketball game, between #2 Lovell at #1 Tongue River.

Scroll down to watch highlights of the game.

After letting the competition hang around in the first half, the Lady Eagles would step it in the second half to pull away.

Maybe there should be a youngsters category at the state cheering competition. I mean they try just as hard as the big girls, don’t they?

Number 2 Lovell at Number 1 Tongue River…first quarter…Tongue River wearing the white…down 2-nothing early, but then Tara Stimpson lit the fuse and boom! That’s how you get on the scoreboard, and it’s now a 3-to-2 contest.

Lovell would make this game interesting at times…unlike the last game 2 weeks ago…Amanda Shumway catches the deflection and scores inside, to give her team the lead back…it’s now 4-to-3…but that lead was very short lived…Megan Myers was just inside the line, so that’ll go down as a long 2, as the Lady Eagles would go back up and eventually hold a 10-4 advantage.

But the defending 2A state champs did not lie down…Kassidy Hetland says go fetch 3 points and the Lady Bulldog delivered herself, and that would get her team right back into this one, trailing 11-to-7.

TR was working on flexing their muscle inside the paint…Sarah Nielsen manages to recover and put in 2 of her 11 points in traffic…to give the home team a 15-to-7 advantage, which was a good start.

However the opposition got loose from their chain and started to play catch-up…no one was guarding Lauren Hinckley and she’ll find nothing but the bottom of the net on the trey…now the visitors are only down by 3…it’s 15-12.

Hinckley was the leader of the pack for awhile…the Lady Bulldog will treat herself to 2 points on the trick…and her team was only trailing 15-to-14 after the first 8 minutes.

2^nd quarter…the Lady Eagles were trying to spread their wings and live up to their name. Stimpson  will pull the trigger on this one and bang! That’s how you do it. Her team is up 18-14.

Lovell kept hanging around…Shumway was the only player on her team to score in double digits…she put in 13, including that 2, and it’s now a 2-point deficit…18-16.

Later…here comes TR’s main scoring threat…Sarah Rawlings…a junior…lighting the fuse and burning up the nets for 3…that opened up a little breathing room…home team is up 23-19.

But Lovell had an answer for most everything that the opposition did…it took a few tries, and then Shumway would score on the putback…as her team would eventually tie this game at 24-all.

Back and forth this game went for awhile which made it interesting. Rawlings wants 3 more…and she’s going to get 3 more…just wait until the second half…she did more than that…the scoreboard now reads, 31-27…and once again…the Lady Bulldogs would respond. Chayli McAthur takes the inside assist and will score quickly…as the visitors only found themselves down 31-29 going into halftime.

3^rd quarter…here’s where the tide turned…big time. We knew something was going to happen. Myers is in the corner…and she’ll get several very friendly bounces before she ends up getting the 3. 16 points were her numbers as TR would go up 34-29 at this point.

Things were just getting started…Rawlings is taking the drive thru lane…because she wants to make a deposit at the bank. The lead is up to 7…36-to-29.

I told you that you would see more of her…and here it comes…she’s open…she wants the ball…she’s got it…and here come 3 more to boot…she led all scorers with 19 points, and the advantage is in double digits, with the scoreboard reading, 39-29.

Lovell needed to get out of the doghouse soon, or else they would find themselves in trouble. Emilee Reasch is tallest player on the court at 5-11…and she’s just a sophomore so she’s got more growing to do. In the meantime she can grab offensive rebounds and score on putbacks…her team still trails, 39-31.

However TR was soaring with Eagle eye vision…Myers lets ‘er fly from the corner and connects for 3 of her own…that would cap off a 13-to-2 run and the lead is at its biggest with the score at 44-to-31.

The Lady Bulldogs needed to answer…but the damage may have already been done at this point. However, it would not deter Hinckley as she would bury the bone on that 3, to cut the deficit to 10…it’s now 46-36.

The home team would get someone new in on their scoring act…here’s Ashley Bolin open behind the defense and that was worth 2 points…that would put her team ahead 48-to-37.

The Lady Eagles did well at shooting 3’s…and getting 3’s the old fashioned way…Bolin again…hoop and the hack…the 3-point play has the scoreboard showing 51-to-37 in favor of the home team.

…and the defense was still going…times 2 as your about to see. Rawlings deflects the pass to herself and she is on a 1-woman mission to the hoop and she’ll get the finish on the right side…that pushed the advantage up to 55-37. Then off camera…to the left a little bit…there was another interception…Rawlings probably had something to do with it…she is wide open for another 2 points and she got it…Tongue River’s undefeated record was in great shape, up 55-to-37 going into the final 8 minutes.

4^th quarter…let’s see who else we can get in here, before we wrap this up…how about Tianne Main...she had a few points here and there…we’ll give her that one…TR has an 18 point cushion…it’s 57-39.

Lovell would get a little something going late, but by then it was too late….Hetland will strike again for 3, but it was going to take more than that, with the score at 59-46.

By now, the reserves were in for TR and they made their contributions as well…this is Eryn Aksamit…bucket and 1 more from the refs…that’s enough. The 3^rd quarter run made the difference, as Tongue River would remain undefeated, by topping the champs again…69-to-57.