Lady Dragons avenge 20 point loss against Pilot Grove with OT win

After losing 63-43 back on January 20th in Pilot Grove, the Bunceton Lady Dragons basketball team vowed that Tuesday night’s showdown at Bunceton would be different.

With both teams over the .500 mark for the season, the Lady Dragons wanted nothing more than to use this game as a stepping stone for the district tournament coming up next week in Green Ridge. As for the Lady Tigers, they wanted to show Bunceton that the first meeting was no fluke.

As it turned out, Bunceton wound up avenging the earlier loss by beating Pilot Grove in overtime 50-47.

In the nightcap, the Pilot Grove  boys jumped out to a 24-12 halftime lead and never looked back or a 52-30 triumph.

While the win improved the Lady Dragons record to 14-10 overall and 4-1 in the CCAA, head coach Mike Arnold said the girls played a complete game. “I am very proud of everyone of our girls,” Arnold said. “Hopefully we can use this win to good use in districts.”

The Lady Dragons had a great start last night while leading Pilot Grove 11-7 after the first eight minutes of the ballgame.

The second quarter was also tight with neither team leading by more than three points. In each instance, the Lady Dragons led Pilot Grove by three on two different occasions at 13-10 after a basket by sophomore Rachel Emde with 7:01 left and again at 17-14 after a basket by junior Erica Kahle with 3:06 remaining.

But even then the Lady Dragons had a hard time pulling away from Pilot Grove. With three ties alone in the second quarter, the Lady Tigers pulled even at the 2:40 mark after a three-point play by senior Hailey Bader to make it 17-17. From that point on both teams exchanged baskets to knot the game at 19-10 and 21-all.

Pilot Grove also outscored Bunceton 14-10 in the second quarter.

Of course the Lady Tigers couldn’t buy a basket in the third quarter while scoring a total of six points. As a result, Bunceton used a 12-3 run over a four minute span to extend the lead to seven at 33-26 with 2:16 left.

The Lady Dragons also outscored Pilot Grove 12-6 to lead after three by a score of 33-27.

The fourth quarter was no different than the first-three with both teams going on runs only to have the other team rally back. While the Lady Dragons led by as much as eight at the 6:03 mark at 37-29, Pilot Grove rallied back behind the shooting of senior Kellie Dillner to give the Lady Tigers the lead at 41-39 with 2:16 left. Meanwhile, after playing to two ties for the next-three minutes, Bunceton picked up a basket by Rachel Emde and a free throw by Jessica Wieland to make it a three-point ballgame at 45-42 with 13.3 seconds remaining. However with just four seconds left on the clock, freshman Kerigan Wessing hit perhaps the biggest shot of the game for the Lady Tigers by burying a three to tie the game at 45-all.

Of course the Lady Tigers also watched as Erica Kahle launched a full-court shot at the buzzer that hit the front of the rim.

Now comes the interesting part of the game. While it wasn’t detected until after the game, the overtime period consisted of only three minutes instead of four and Bunceton used that to its advantage by outscoring Pilot Grove 5-2 for the victory.

In overtime, the Lady Dragons also scored the final-three points on a basket by sophomore Lizzy Maddex and a free throw by Kahle.

After the game, Pilot Grove coach Landon Daniel said this was a really tough overtime loss for the team, but all in all, it was a big improvement to the team’s play compared to last week.

“We played well throughout the game, however, we still had too many turnovers and not enough steals as we normally do,” Daniel said. “Bunceton came out ready to play just like we knew they would and they shot lights out. Even though it was a loss, I’m proud of the girls and the effort they put out, especially late in the game. This will be a great game to build off of to end our year with one more game this week against Jamestown and then districts next week.”

Erica Kahle and Rachel Emde each had 18 points in the game for the Lady Dragons, who improved to 14-10 overall and 4-1 in the CCAA. Kahle also finished the game with three steals, one rebound and one assist while Emde had nine rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Chelsea Emde added five points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals while Jessica Wieland chipped in four points, one steal and one assist, Sam Berwanger with two points, nine rebounds, two steals and two assists, Lizzy Maddex with two points and Maddy Berwanger with one point, nine rebounds, two steals and two assists.

The Lady Dragons also hit on 18 of 45 shots from the field for 40 percent and 12 of 19 from the foul line for 64 percent.

For Pilot Grove, Hailey Bader finished the game with a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds along with three assists and three steals.

Kerigan Wessing had 14 points, one assist and one steal while Melissa Schlotzhauer added 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and one steal, Kellie Dillner with seven points, two rebounds and one assist, McKenzi Schuster with two rebounds, two assists and one steal, Randi Kellerman with two rebounds and one steal, Lauren Vollrath with one rebound and one steal and Kori Marshall with one blocked shot.

Of course the shoe was on the other foot in the nightcap as the Pilot Grove boys jumped out to a 9-3 first-quarter lead against Bunceton and then outscored the Dragons 15-9 in the second quarter to make it 24-12.

The Tigers never looked back from that point on in the ballgame while holding a 28-18 advantage in the final-two periods to win the game by 22.

Pilot Grove coach Rick Grunden said his team never found a rhythm on either end o the court against Bunceton.

“We did execute some things well at times and showed some great growth,” Grunden said. “Bunceton had a very excited and amped up environment tonight and we could have easily let ourselves get caught up in that atmosphere. However, I thought we showed a lot of maturity and we did exactly what we came out to do, win.”

Kendall Kraus had the game-high for Pilot Grove, who improved to 13-10 overall and 4-1 in the CCAA, with 14 points. Jake Leverton chipped in 12, Trevor Day 10, Sean Lorenz six and Colton Glenn and Dylan Twenter each with five.

For Bunceton, who dropped to 6-16 overall and 3-3 in the conference, Kyler Tucker had 12 points, two rebounds, one steal and one assist.

Austin Hein finished the game with six points, seven rebounds, one steal and one assist while Jacob Clevenger added six points, eight rebounds and one assist, Kyle Held with one point, two steals, one rebound and one assist, Will Twenter with six rebounds and three assists and Mitchel Lenz with one rebound.