By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (December 7, 2024) – For a chunk of the first 16 minutes, Montpelier’s Jada Uribes was in a place that Locos coach Mike Bumb didn’t want her, that’s sitting next to him on the bench in foul trouble.
However, in the second half the 5’9 senior was right where Bumb needed her, on the floor, scoring 22 of her game high 23 points to bring Montpelier from an eight point halftime negative, to a 55-48 victory.
Addy Ricker’s nine first quarter points along with six more by Lanae Manz staked the Vikings to a 20-12 first quarter lead.
Ricker tacked on five more in the second quarter as Evergreen maintained that eight point margin, 29-21 heading into the locker room, thanks in part to Uribes sitting down with a pair of first half fouls.
“Jada got in foul trouble, collectively as a team we got in foul trouble, they did a nice job attacking us and putting us in foul trouble,” Bumb said. “We aren’t very deep so Jada had to go out so that hurt us significantly.”
“We had to go zone and get out of the man-to-man also because of the fouls and that’s our second best defense. We turned them over more man-to-man, but we couldn’t do that in the first half because we got in such foul trouble.”
That all changed immediately in the third as Uribes led a 12-2 spurt, hitting a pair of corner triples among her eight points with Zoe Uribes throwing in a high arcing shot in the paint to push Montpelier on top 33-31
Back-to-back triples by Kyla Risner and Manz jumped the Vikings back up 37-33 late in the third, and Evergreen held a 39-35 advantage going into the fourth.
It was then that Jada Uribes began a personal assault on the score sheet, getting inside for one hoop, then dialing up a corner triple to push the Locos back up 40-39.
Kennedy Emmitt’s free throw knotted the score, but Uribes got a putback then another corner three-ball, both off Evergreen turnovers, to make it 45-40.
The Vikings were hamstrung by five straight fourth quarter turnovers, and six overall in the period, which the Locos turned into 10 points to open up the lead.
“That happened when we went back to the man-to-man, which we couldn’t, again, do as much in the first half,” explained Bumb of the rash of turnovers his team caused.
“We are pretty physical and pretty athletic. We are an average shooting team, so we need to turn defense into offense in order for us to score a lot of points.”
Manz’s bucket got Evergreen (3-1) within possession, but Uribes struck again from outside the arc to boost the Loco margin to 48-42, and Kelsie Bumb canned five of six free throws down the stretch to put the game on ice.
“I thought Kelsie Bumb was outstanding taking care of the basketball and she was very physical with the basketball,” Bumb said of his senior point guard.
“They were guarding her pretty hard, but she absorbs contact so well and does a nice job of redirecting to get out of traffic. Then she knocked down her free throws to extend the margin.”
Aleigha Hillard added 10 points for the Locos, eight of those coming in the first half to keep Montpelier (3-1) in striking distance.
Ricker had 17 and Manz added 11 to front Evergreen.
MONTPELIER (55) – Bumb 7; Hillard 10; Z. Uribes 4; Mahan 7; McGee 0; Ramos 0; Feeney 0; Hopper 4; J. Uribes 23; Totals: 13-5-14 – 55
EVERGREEN (48) – Risner 8; Manz 11; Small man; Lumbrezer 2; Vaculik 3; K. Emmitt 7; Burgermeister 0; Ricker 17; Totals: 13-4-10 – 48
MONTPELIER 12 9 14 20 – 55
EVERGREEN 20 9 10 9 – 48