(January 20th, 2015) – PIONEER: One of the telltale signs of a strong, unified team is their ability to take their opponent’s best shot, and still come away with a victory. That’s exactly what happened to the girls of North Central as they took on the visiting Lady Bulldogs of Edgerton last week.
Despite Edgerton challenging in the second half, the Lady Eagles were still able to secure a 41-38 win.
The Pioneer girls claimed an early advantage, pulling ahead 12-5 in the first period. They were able to solidify that lead in the second quarter, maintaining a 21-16 gap between themselves and the Bulldog girls at halftime.
Edgerton made their move in the third quarter. They overtook the Lady Eagles with a 10-4 run which took up the entirety of the period. The momentum shift took North Central from a 5 point lead to a 1 point deficit with a 26-25 score. With the fourth quarter lingering ahead, it would have been easy for the Eagle girls to give in to the flow of the game and be overrun.
That’s not what happened, though.
Both teams stood poised to have their best quarter in the final stanza. The two units traded blows, each side struggling to gain the upper hand. Down the stretch, it was North Central who accomplished that goal, earning the period with a 16-12 margin, and procuring the 3 point victory,
Rachel Oxender, a senior leader for the Lady Eagles, produced 15 points in the win. Of those points, 8 came from two-point field goals, and the rest were earned from the free throw line, where she went 7 for 8 shooting. Junior Cady VanDeVoorde added 12 points to the North Cenral total, knocking down a trio of triples along the way. Sabrina Pickford and Alyssa Swank added 5 points apiece as well.
Neither team could be described as exceptional from the charity stripe. As a team, the Lady Eagles connected on 13 of their 21 attempts from the line, good for a 62% success rate. That’s a solid performance, and a decent number of attempts, but a higher shooting percentage on their extra points would have made things a bit easier.
Edgerton went 10 for 15 from the stripe, which put them at a 67% rate of accuracy. While that is a high percentage of shots made from the free throw line, the lower number of attempts on the Bulldogs part actually gives the Eagles a slight advantage in that aspect of the game.
The turnover battle was as tight as the final score. North Central was careful with the ball, making just 12 of the possession-costing mistakes. With just 13 turnovers of their own, the Lady Bulldogs weren’t prone to many errors, either.
This out of conference victory was a big one for the girls of Pioneer. After getting off to a 4-2 start, a brutal schedule has led to North Central falling into a 5 game losing streak. Beating a Green Meadows Conference opponent could be the shot in the arm they needed to get back on track.